SasoDei 'Konoha Boarding School'
by Akatsuki1210
Summary: Deidara, a poor sixteen years old guy, attends a new school, which is full of bullies and even worse; he falls in love with one, who is, certainly, not gay. Will he survive the place or not? Perhaps. High school AU. Warning: SasoDei (Yaoi); Swearing; Sensuality. Rated T.
1. Prologue

SasoDei 'Konoha Boarding School'

Prologue.

His knees were shaking and he felt the sweat starting to run down his forehead.

He tried to think that he was sweating because of the sun, but he knew too well that was a lie.

His heart was literally racing.

Why was he _so_ nervous? He wasn't on his way saving the world or anything; he was just going to start in a new school.

Only that this was a different kind of school. And this was in Konoha, far away from Iwagakure. He swallowed while he _thought _about it and he had already started missing his family. _You can do this, Deidara, _he thought in a way of trying to _cheer _himselfup. When he noticed that it didn't worked he sighed.

He stared at that big banner, hanging over the gate entrance and read _Konoha Boarding School_. The sign itself scared him and he inspected the school area carefully before starting to dig in his handbag. Before leaving his home to the man who gave him his scholarship also gave him other necessary things, like a bunch of papers containing instructions, rules and two maps, one of Konoha's and another of the school's.

He took out the map of the school before grabbing his bags and started to walk.

When passing the gate entrance he couldn't help but widen his eyes and open his mouth. Everything was huge. The school area was surrounded by a black, thick and long fence. It was as big as a city park, with big lawns and trees. In the middle there was a huge brown building. According to the map that was the main building.

In Deidara's opinion, it looked like a castle, with its stairs, big door and windows. He also saw other buildings, but not as great as the main building, looking _like_ apartments. That was the dorms.

It was empty of people. He looked at the big clock on the main building and noticed that they were all probably having classes. He hurried up the stairs, and had a hard time with all his bags, before finally entering. Even inside, it was deserted. He looked at his map, searching for the reception.

Reading maps wasn't the blonde's greatest skill. He walked up and down some stairs, ran through hundreds of corridors (it felt like there were hundreds of them) and desperately tried to at least find some signs that would help him. He didn't even find a single person to ask for help. At first he admired the school for its greatness – now he cursed it. When being lost for almost forty minutes he finally found the reception where _also blonde_ woman with big tits was sitting, reading a news paper. When seeing her Deidara started to walk slower. She looked irritated and mean and that gave him a bad feeling.

"Excuse me." He said in a low voice and tried to remember how to talk without cracking his voice, which seemed like a dialect for everyone, and it was his biggest problem, like his teacher had told him to do before leaving. She turned to face him, without saying a word. "Uhm," Deidara said stupidly. "I was..."

It was something with her eyes, Deidara thought, something that gave him the creeps. She looked at him with _almost_ judging eyes, or eyes that cursed him because he interrupted her _very_ intense reading. Did she hate him?

"I-I am Iwa Deidara."

Her eyes spoke for themselves; _So?_ She just kept staring at him, like she was a statue.

"I'm new here."

Suddenly, she spoke. "You're the one from Iwa?" She had a hoarse voice, like she had been smoking non-stop for years.

"I-I just wanted... Where should I...?"

She turned around to her computer before typing something Deidara couldn't see. After that she raised herself from her seat and walked out of sight. When she returned she had a key in her hand. She gave it to the blonde.

"Your room is 208" She said. "Leave your bags there, _then_ come back." She pointed up the stairs. "You're in class 4-C, walk up the stairs and you'll see classroom number twenty one". She grabbed her news paper again and made herself comfortable on her chair. "Class ends in forty five minutes".

Donghae had a feeling that if he interrupted her again he would regret it.

-xxx-

Having to carry all his bags by himself, the blonde moaned in frustration when seeing how far away the dorms were.

He had two suitcases and three bags, all being very heavy. When he had succeeded in walking half the way, he dropped one of his hand bags and it fell on the ground, spilling out all the things it had inside. Deidara moaned even louder. To his rescue he saw a boy taller than himself, with long black hair, walk towards him. He hoped from the bottom of his heart that the boy would stop and ask if he needed any help, because he knew he would be too shy to ask. And as if God had answered his prayer the boy stopped in front of him.

"Do you need help?" He asked and crouched down before the blonde had time to reply.

"Thanks."

The two of them quickly managed to pick up Deidara's stuff and Deidara couldn't help but feel embarrassed when exposing his cheap things; his non-designer clothing, his old second-hand cell phone that almost didn't work and papers showing off that he entered this school almost for free. Even so, the other didn't seem to care.

"Are you the new guy?" He asked instead, even though it was obvious.

Deidara nodded.

"You're in room 208, right?"

The blonde raised his eyebrows in surprise. "Yes" He said and picked up the last stuff that was left. "How did you know?"

The guy raised himself. "It's my room." He said and slightly smiled. "The principal said you'll be arriving today". He extended a friendly hand. "I'm Uchiha Itachi."

The blonde smiled back at him. "Iwa Deidara." For just a second his worry and nervousness disappeared.

-xxx-

Itachi sure had a lot of money – Deidara didn't have to ask to notice. When arriving at their common room, Itachi's side of the room made Deidara drop his chin. Compared to the blonde's side Itachi's side had an expensive laptop, a little television, a new desk, and an armchair. Everything looked so expensive and it was so clean, that Deidara was afraid to stay with him. _What if he litter up the room?_ Or even worse – _what if he breaks something?_ He nearly died of shame when thinking about the things he brought with him; cheap clothes and some papers. Did everyone in this school have these things?

"You want to unpack?" Itachi asked.

Deidara shook his head fast. He laughed nervously. "I-I'll do that later… Let's just go to class. I'll change to the uniform."

Itachi and Deidara talked a lot while heading back to the main building. According to him, he asked for permission to leave the classroom to help the new student, because they would be sharing room. He sure was a nice person.

While standing in front of their classroom door Deidara's heart started to beat faster. His knees started to shake and some sweat drops were visible on his forehead, just like before. The Uchiha didn't fail to notice and placed a cheerful hand on the nervous boy's shoulder before opening the door. The first person Deidara saw was a tall, kind-looking man. He was probably in his early fifties and looked pretty nice. He had long white hair and looked kind of dorky. The man, his new teacher, smiled at him.

"I see you brought the new student safely." He said and suddenly, the whole class was staring at them. Deidara tried to smile but was too nervous. "Everyone" He said in a loud voice. "This is our new student."

"The scholarship-guy?" Someone said in a low voice, but loud enough for everyone to hear. Almost everyone giggled. Deidara blushed and the teacher glared at the person saying that. Then he turned to face the blonde with a gentle smile.

"Introduce yourself."

Deidara could swear he was going to die. Today was his doomsday, he knew it. He wanted to disappear and regret a thousand times leaving Iwagakure. Not even a nice person as Itachi could make him see good things in being here. He wanted to go home.

"Hello" He said politely with a shaking voice and bowed. He could swear he still heard some giggles. "I'm Deidara Iwa."

The teacher told him to sit down on the empty seat which was, to his luck, beside the only person he knew.

Something made him feel uncomfortable.

Well, he had felt uncomfortable ever since he sat his foot in this damned school, but now it was different. He felt like someone was watching him, which he first thought was, because he was so nervous. But when that feeling still didn't disappear he couldn't help but turn his head a little, to look at the people behind him.

And yes, someone was watching him; a red haired guy with moody, chocolate brown eyes. His uniform wasn't put on properly – some buttons were unbuttoned, exposing a part of his pale collar bone and the black tie was just hanging loose around his neck. When Deidara met with the boy's brown eyes he didn't turn his face away but just turned his eyes to look at the teacher. The blonde thought, that they made eye contact by a coincidence – he wasn't really watching him, was he?

But when Deidara turned around again, that person was still looking at him. And again, when the person got caught, he looked at the teacher, still being relaxed. Deidara got even more nervous. Why was he staring at him like that?

Did he have something in his precious hair? Was his uniform dirty?

It was impossible to concentrate on whatever the teacher was saying now, when knowing someone behind him, someone he had never seen in his whole life, was staring at him so intensely and yet looking so comfortable, even though Deidara had caught him in the act. When turning around for the third time the person wasn't looking at him anymore.

Instead, the person sitting _beside_ the stranger, a boy with short black hair, was looking at him now. He had scary left eye, it looked like it was replaced and it had scars all over it.

The guy didn't look at him as intensely as the stranger before had.

Then, the scary-eyed man grinned, _What the...?_

He whispered something in the other boy's ear, which made the boy smile and chuckle soundlessly, showing off his gums. Deidara got a feeling, that this guy said something Deidara wouldn't like to hear.

"Obito." Their teacher interrupted. The whole class turned to look at the scary-eyed. "If you have something more important than me to say, then please say it out loud."

Obito stared at the teacher, his eyes _saying how dare you?_ He gave the teacher an obvious and cocky fake smile which made the teacher glare at the_ disrespectful_ brat. The blonde saw the boy beside Obito chuckle again.

-xxx-

"What's with his attitude?" Deidara asked Itachi, during their break. Their break was fifteen minutes long, so they decided to go out and sit on a bench, enjoying the nice weather.

"He's a prince." Itachi said. Deidara widened his eyes and dropped his chin.

The brunette laughed. "He would like to think so. Of course he's not a prince."

"Hey, just look at this school. It wouldn't surprise me if there actually was a prince here."

They laughed, but suddenly Itachi got a serious face. He wasn't looking at the blonde, but at something behind him.

Deidara turned his face. He saw a group with almost ten people, half of them obviously being older than them, walk towards them. None of them had putted their uniforms on properly. Deidara felt a hard tap on his knee, and turned to face Itachi who looked at him with a warning face.

"What?" He asked, but Itachi didn't respond.

They watched as the group passed. One guy was walking in front of the others, as if leading them. He was a tall, his black hair, was long, but not tied, he had black, completely black eyes. The accessories he had and his hair told Deidara that he sure was known in this school and he had a cocky walk, his hands in his pockets.

The guys passed, all of them looking at the two boys sitting on the bench, with a nasty look. Then, one of them whispered something in another one's ear and both laughed. _This is not an unfamiliar scene,_ Deidara thought.

He got a feeling that this would be repeated several times, here in this school.

"Who were they?" The blonde asked when they were too far away to hear their conversation.

"Did you have bullies in you previous school?" Itachi asked. "Bastards who thinks they rule the school?"

Deidara nodded and Itachi pointed discretely with his head.

"Who was the guy walking in front of them?"

"His name is Madara Uchiha. He's eighteen, so he's in his last year." Itachi looked at Deidara with that warningly face again. "And if you have something called 'common sense' you won't go near him."

The blonde turned back to look at the older one more time. They were sitting on the grass, talking to each other and laughing out loud. Madara Uchiha's looks were good and he didn't look very dangerous – mostly because he's smile was innocent. But he did look scary though.

"Why?" Deidara asked.

"Just stay away from him." Itachi had a dead serious face when speaking and Deidara knew he meant what he was saying.

When looking at them again two other persons from before got the blonde's attention – the cocky boy from before and the guy with the staring eyes.

"Isn't he that Obito-guy?" He asked. "From our class?"

The brunette nodded.

"Who's the one beside him?"

"That's Sasori. He was sitting beside Obito during class."

Deidara raised one eyebrow. "Sasori?" He repeated.

"His name is Sasori No Akasuna. Well, people just call him by his real name , it's only his friends, who can call him by his nick name 'Red'."

Something told Deidara that Itachi would rather not talk about this. "Why? Is he also someone I should stay away from?"

Itachi nodded again and glanced over to the boy group. He looked, the bothered and happy atmosphere from before seemed to disappear completely, little by little. Deidara decided to cheer up the mood a little.

"What if I don't want to?" He asked with a provocative voice, like a child who didn't want to obey his parents.

The taller one sighed. "Then you'll only have yourself to blame. But I promise I'll wait for you with a blanket and some hot chocolate when you return all beaten up."

The blonde laughed. "Don't worry." He said and smiled. "I get the feeling that he doesn't even like me."

"Probably." Itachi said honestly. "He's just..." He sighed. "Let's just say the school would be better off without him. And without his friends."

Deidara kept watching the group. "They don't look any different from the other students though." He said.

The brunette got that warningly look again and that kind of scared Deidara. "Listen." He said and looked Deidara deep in the eyes. "They aren't just regular bullies, who push people in the corridors and stuff. They're _dangerous_. Don't talk to them, don't look at them – nothing. You understand?"

Deidara nodded, not really understanding Itachi's caution. Were they _murderers_, or _what_? Deidara had more questions in his mind, but Itachi's eyes told him _not_ to ask more questions. He stayed silent and just watched them from a distance. He saw Sasori Akasuna, laughing at something, the guy named Madara said. He sure had a special smile.

-xxx-

When finishing the last lesson, Itachi helped Deidara unpack, without mentioning anything about the things the blonde had. It was obvious anyway and Deidara forced himself to not feel ashamed.

He told himself over and over that he hadn't done anything wrong – quite the reverse, he was here, because he _deserved_ it, not like some people who was here just because they had a lot of money.

That was nothing to be ashamed of.

"Money doesn't matter." Itachi suddenly said, knowing exactly what was bothering Deidara.

"You're here because of your brains, not because of your wallet."

The blonde smiled.

That was all he needed to hear.

-xxx-

When they finished unpacking, Itachi was sitting at the desk, studying while Deidara sat on his bed, watching him. He was mind-battling with himself, wondering if he should tell Itachi what he had in mind or not. He really liked the brunette, and he really wanted to be his friend. But what if Itachi wouldn't accept him? Well, he could always change room. He would get a little sad if that happened, but it wouldn't be the end of the world. And because he really wanted to be friends with him, then he would tell him sooner or later. The sooner the better.

"…Itachi." He whispered, but it was quite enough for Itachi to hear.

Itachi laughed.

"Speak more comfortably." He said, not turning to look at him. Maybe he actually would accept him.

"Do you want to be friends with me?"

The question seemed to surprise Itachi, because he turned to face Deidara, raising one of his thick eyebrows. "Yes, of course." He said.

Before he had time to look down at his book again, the blonde spoke. "I think there's something you should know then."

Itachi didn't answer, but just waited for Deidara to continue.

"I like guys."

Itachi opened his eyes wide, making it look like they would pop out of his head, and both his thick eyebrows rose.

"You like guys?" He repeated.

"Yes."

"You mean like... like you're…"

"Homosexual, fag, queer, gay – yes."

The brunette stared at him like he wasn't a human being and Deidara slightly started to regret what he had said.

"Is that okay with you?"

"Yes." Itachi's eyebrows fell down again, but he still looked like he was observing him. "I just didn't… expect you to say that." He stared at Deidara for a while, like he was trying to figure something out.

"I won't hit on you." Deidara joked. "I promise."

Itachi laughed, and to Deidara's surprise, it was a comfortable laugh. "Does your family know?"

"My mom and my older brother do."

"And your dad?"

Deidarar's expression suddenly changed and he smiled sadly. Something told Itachi he shouldn't wait for an answer.

"And your friends?" He asked instead.

"Yes, every _one_ of them. And now you know too."

Itachi admired the shorter boy's confidence and his ability to talk so casually.

"Can I ask you something?" Itachi suddenly said, curiosity taking over. Deidara nodded.

"Don't get me wrong." He added. "I'm just curious." Deidara nodded again and Itachi took a silent deep breath.

"Have you ever... you know... _been_ with... a guy?"

Deidara stared at him and for a moment and Itachi was sure he had offended him. He raised his hands and shook them, as if saying 'stop', and widened his eyes again in that special way of his.

Deidara was sure Itachi was the only one being able to do that.

The brunette was about to take back what he just had said when Deidara suddenly laughed. "Are you sure you want to know that?" He asked, still laughing. "You don't ask me how many siblings I have or why I changed school – instead you ask me if I've ever slept with a man."

"I'm sorry." Itachi hurried to say, "I don't know why I asked that."

Deidara smiled gently at him. "It's okay. I'm not offended or anything. I think it's funny."

Itachi half smiled.

"I've only _been_," He emphasized that word, "With one guy before. My_ first love._"

Itachi didn't know how he should answer that. Why did he even ask in the first place?

"Awkward?" The blonde smiled, making Itachi laugh. It didn't matter; they still felt comfortable with each other. It was a comfortable awkwardness, if that even made any sense. "Now, you tell me about yourself. Have you ever _been_ with a girl?"

Itachi's face immediately reddened which made Deidara laugh even more.

"I'm just kidding." He said. He raised himself from the bed and grabbed Itachi's wrist.

"Let's buy something to eat. I'm hungry."

After all, maybe this school wouldn't be as horrible as Deidara first had imagined.


	2. Chapter 1

SasoDei 'Konoha Boarding School'

Chapter one.

It was Itachi's suggestion that, they should go to the cafeteria, but not now since it probably was being full of people.

The students always went there after finishing school for the day, so they wouldn't find any seats. So instead they just sat outside in the shadow, where it was rather empty of people, Itachi lying on his back with closed eyes and Deidara sitting and watching the school and still being totally amazed. He wondered if he ever would be able to fit in, in this kind of environment.

Then, he suddenly jumped in surprised, let out a loud "Oh!", and pointed.

Itachi opened his eyes and looked at the direction where Deidara's finger was pointing. He was pointing at a boy with a smile so bright that even Itachi noticed, even though it was from far away.

"It's Gaara!" Deidara shouted. "Gaara!"

Itachi kept looking at the guy to see if he was someone Itachi had seen before – but no. "Gaara?" He asked.

"Sabaku Gaara!" Deidara almost yelled out in happiness, being totally chocked. He could swear he was dreaming. "I know him!"

"Really?" Itachi asked surprised. "Which class?"

The blonde raised himself and grabbed Itachi's hand to pull him up. "How should I know? He's one year younger."

Itachi had to jog along to keep up with the excited shorter boy's pace.

The boy named Gaara was talking to another short boy that neither Deidara nor Itachi knew, and didn't see the two boys approaching. Deidara walked slowly and silently, till he was standing only a few centimeters behind the red head. Then he slowly raised his leg, placed his foot only a few centimeters away from the red haired boy's butt and pushed.

"What the f-." Gaara hissed and turned around, his hands brushing his butt – worried that his pants would be dirty. But he went completely silent and just widened his eyes when seeing who the guilty one was. He stared at Deidara like he wasn't a human being, and suddenly his ability to speak disappeared.

"I dare you to finish that sentence." The blonde challenged with, and smirked.

"Deidara?" Gaara managed to say, still not believing his eyes.

Deidara smiled and literally threw himself over the younger, making them both almost fall down to the ground.

Gaara was too shocked to hug him back.

Even though Deidara was one year older, Gaara was still some centimeter's taller and he had always been.

Deidara smiled even wider when old memories crossed his mind.

Itachi and Gaara's friend stared awkwardly at the hugging males, because this was shock for them too. When pulling away from the hug Deidara introduced Itachi to Gaara while the red head did the same and introduced his friend as 'Naruto'.

Deidara still couldn't believe it and neither could Gaara. Both Naruto and Itachi guessed that Deidara and Gaara probably wanted to talk just the two of them, so they made sure to walk a little slower to give the blonde and the red haired guys their own space.

"How did you manage to get here?" Gaara asked. He was the only person Deidara could talk comfortably with, concerning his social status.

"I got a scholarship."

"A scholarship?" Gaara repeated. "So you're...? Everyone's talking about you, you know."

That uncomfortable feeling came back. "What do they say?"

"They say you don't have more clothes than the school uniform. And that your roommate pays for your food. And that your mother probably is a..." He searched for the word. "Prostitute." He finally said. "Only they didn't really use the word 'prostitute'."

Deidara stared at Gaara and dropped his chin. He should get angry, but he couldn't. It was just way to ridicule and he ended up chuckling to himself.

"They're idiots." Gaara sighed. "Don't listen to them."

The four boys kept walking here and there in the school area; Itachi and Naruto talking to each other and Deidara and Gaara walking in silence. "Which class are you in?" The red head suddenly asked.

Deidara had to think for a moment before answering, he wasn't really that good when it came to remember things.

"4-C."

"I don't know anyone there." Gaara replied.

"Do you know Sasori Akasuna?" Deidara asked out of the blue.

Gaara raised his eyebrows. "No, why?"

"You don't? I though everyone knew him."

"I don't know him personally, but I know who he is. Why do you ask?"

"Just curious. He's in my class."

"That must suck."

Deidara laughed. "I think Obito's worse than Red though." The blonde accidently said the nick name, but decided to ignore it.

"Sasori." Gaara corrected Deidara. "And Obito's just Sasori's bitch. He becomes brain dead when Sasori's not around."

"Don't talk like that."

The red head laughed. "Sorry."

They kept walking in silence again. Deidara looked over his shoulder, to look at Itachi because he had to keep in mind that Itachi knew neither Naruto nor Gaara – he didn't want his friend to feel awkward. So when he saw Itachi and Naruto talking like they had been friends for years, he smiled.

It had been a while since Gaara and Deidara last saw each other so they didn't really know what to say, even though there was so much to talk about. So they remained silent. That was until Gaara once again spoke.

"Naruto and I have a test tomorrow, so we should probably be going." He said.

Deidara nodded but didn't say anything. He knew he would probably say something stupid and embarrassing, because he didn't want the red head to leave. Then he reminded himself that he was going to be in this school for two years so they had plenty of time to see each other again.

"It's really nice seeing you again." He finally said and broke the silence.

Gaara smiled and Deidara thought, that he saw Gaara blush. "It's really nice seeing you too, Dei. I'll call you later."

Deidara took a few steps forward before hugging the red head, who suddenly tensed his body but the blonde didn't notice.

It took Gaara a few seconds before he responded the hug.

Itachi and Deidara watched Gaara and his blonde friend, Naruto leave, and Deidara couldn't help but feel a little sad. He felt Itachi place his hand on his shoulder and he turned to face him.

"The cafeteria is probably not that crowded now." He said.

The school did not fail to surprise Deidara once again. Their school cafeteria looked more like a café then a regular school cafeteria. People where sitting together in groups, enjoying their coffee, tea, juice, snacks and meals.

Because the blonde had arrived to the school after lunch he hadn't eaten anything.

At first he had been too nervous to notice how hungry he actually was and then too excited and happy, when he saw Gaara. But now that he was feeling calm, his stomach was rumbling. He looked at the sandwiches with his huge, baby blue eyes – it made his mouth water. When buying everything they wanted they walked over to sit at an empty table, Itachi with his coffee and Deidara with his two huge sandwiches and cup of tea. Itachi looked at Deidara's food with almost confusion in his eyes. Then he looked at Deidara, a short boy with not a big stomach.

"Are you sure, you can eat both?" He asked. "One would've been enough."

"Don't underestimate me." Deidara said. "I'm hungry"

"I bet you're used to that feeling, you beggar." A provocative voice, a voice Deidara did not recognize, said.

He turned his head only to see Obito, Sasori and an unknown guy that wasn't someone in their class or just skipped it, standing behind him. Where they _everywhere_? Wasn't this school like... really big? But the most important question: How in the world do you answer to that?

"We're not bothering you." Itachi said, he didn't sound very confident. "So, please leave."

All three chuckled and the cafeteria suddenly went silent, eyes staring only at Deidara's direction. "You're giving our class a bad reputation, Itachi." Obito said and stared at the blonde directly in the eyes.

If Deidara felt _uncomfortable; nervous; scared; insecure_ before, then he didn't know how to describe this. He glanced over at Itachi, eyes that asked him what to do, but brunette looked as uncomfortable, nervous, scared, and insecure as Deidara did. Suddenly Sasori grabbed Deidara's cup of tea and the blonde immediately froze.

He had only seen Sasori from a distance, not this close.

Deidara still thought that of all people in this mini-mafia group Sasori was the one looking the least scary. Even when he chuckled and smiled evilly, like he had done in the classroom before, there was still something angelic with him. It was pretty weird that Deidara thought that, since everyone he had talked to, had talked about Sasori like he was some kind of a monster. With the red head's looks Deidara could imagine him being very popular among girls.

After grabbing Deidara's cup, Sasori inspected the liquid inside the cup before taking a sip. Deidara widened his eyes – waiting anxiously about what would happen next: Deidara thinking, that Sasori didn't look very frightening didn't really matter now, since he noticed that he succeeded in scaring Itachi.

"Ew!" Obito almost squealed. "You'll get aids."

Sasori made a face, not using words to say that it didn't taste good. Then he turned to nod at Obito, agreeing, that it was indeed nasty, before he casually turned the cup upside down over Deidara's sandwiches. The blonde realized too late what happened and wasn't fast enough to push his chair away from the table before the hot tea ran down, over his pants.

Obito gasped. "No, Sasori!" He said in a sarcastic melodramatic tone. "Don't do that! He can't afford to buy a new one!" At that, Sasori chuckled.

It was hot, very hot, and Deidara had to bit his bottom lip to not scream in pain. His thighs felt like they were on fire. Itachi _immediately_ raised himself from his seat to help his friend, while people around them started to laugh.

"Let's go," The third, unknown, guy said to his two friends. "He might give you lice."

Obito, Sasori and the nameless guy walked away – Obito and the nameless guy laughing out loud and Sasori just walking like nothing happened.

"WHAT THE FUCK IS HIS PROBLEM?!" Deidara screamed. Right after the incident Itachi helped Deidara back to their room so he could change his clothes – mostly his pants. "He burned me!"

"I warned you."

"Yes, but I didn't fucking do anything!"

Itachi sighed. "I know." He said in a low voice. "I'm sorry." He couldn't help but feel guilty over what had happened.

"Don't say you're sorry, it wasn't your fault." The blonde said it sincerely, even though he still sounded angry. After changing to regular jeans and a T-shirt he sat down on his bed; his head resting over is hands to give himself some seconds to think. Then, he raised himself and Itachi feared he was about to do something he would regret.

"Where are you going?" He asked, widening his eyes.

"I didn't do anything." Deidara said again and put his shoes back on. "If I don't do anything then they'll just keep bothering me."

"You're not really going to...?"

"Yes, I am." Deidara put his jacket on and Itachi jumped out of his seat.

"No, wait!" He said but Deidara got out of the room before he had time to say something more. Itachi immediately put one shoe on and realized that the other one was not in sight.

He cursed himself and desperately searched for that damned shoe, so he could stop the stupid newcomer.


	3. Chapter 2

SasoDei 'Konoha Boarding School'

Chapter two.

Deidara saw red. And his thighs still hurt.

How could anyone be such a... such a fucking...? He couldn't even find the right words for such a person.

_"Angelic my ass,"_ He thought as he walked as fast as he could; searching for his target. He didn't even know where that bastard was, but that didn't stop him. He decided to go and see if he was still in the cafeteria and when he arrived there, he just saw his friends, not the star himself.

When he finally found him, behind the boy's dorms, he stopped dead short. He did not expect to find him like this – Sasori pressing a thin bimbo against the wall and his tongue literally in her throat. Deidara widened his eyes. _What. The. Fuck!?_

He just stood there, watching them stupidly, feeling his anger grow more intense. He fisted his hand; his knuckles becoming white. His anger changed, this was hate. He got an impulsive feeling of wanting to beat the crap out of that bitch. Seeing Sasori gently placing his hands on her hips was all it took for Deidara to take one step forward. But he didn't get any further since someone grabbed his T-shirt and pulled him back, the blonde almost falling backwards.

"W-what...?" He started but got interrupted.

"Are you out of your mind?"

He didn't have to turn around to know how it was; the voice had been familiar since years ago. "Let go! I'll fall."

Gaara stopped and spun Deidara around, placing his hands on his friend's shoulders, grabbing him hard and looking at him with warningly eyes. "Are you out of you mind, Deidara?" He asked again, this time louder.

"I didn't do anything."

"I thought your friend told you to stay away from him!" Gaara screamed.

"I didn't do anything! Why are you acting like this?" Deidara screamed back.

They glared at each other, till the red head's eyes softened. He removed his hands, only to start massaging his own temples with his fingers. "I'm sorry." He sighed. "I just..."

"I don't need a babysitter, you know."

"I know."

Gaara sighed again, sincerely looking apologetic. "I'm sorry." He said again.

"It's alright." The blonde said, even though he still sounded irritated. "I'm sorry too."

"I didn't mean to sound like that. But I get angry when you won't listen to the people that care about you. You never do." It didn't really sound like an insult, more like a compliment, and Deidara chuckled. Under normal _circumstances_ he would just laugh it away, but he was still angry. He sighed and said a low "Let's go," and Gaara knew that he still was annoyed.

The scene he had seen still bothered him, even after some minutes passed, and whenever he thought about it he got angry. "_I bet she's a total bitch_," He thought. _A fucking cheap one._

"What are you thinking about?" Gaara said, clearly noticing that Deidara's anger in his eyes still was there. He was worried that the blonde friend was still mad at him.

"I thought you said they were a couple."

"What? Who?"

"Sasori and Obito."

"No, I said 'bitch'."

"What, so they just sleep with each other?"

Gaara laughed a little. "I didn't mean it literally. Sasori doesn't like guys."

"Yeah, I kind of saw that. He likes cheap and stupid bitches, like all wannabe gangsters do."

The red head raised his eyebrows. "Are you jealous?"

Deidara chuckled in pure sarcasm. "Oh, yes, sure. Of course." He said, overdosing drama in his voice. He turned to glare at the younger. "Don't make me vomit."

"Then why are you so upset about it?"

"Because she's a bitch."

"How do you know, you know her?"

"That's not the point."

"How can you say she's a bitch when you don't even know her? What if she's the kindest person on earth?"

"If she is, then she's also the stupidest person on earth."

"What do you mean?"

"You must be pretty fucked up to date a guy like that."

"You're not making any sense. Are you mad at her?"

"Yes, I'm mad at her because she's a stupid bitch, or else she wouldn't date him."

"I don't understand it either, but I'm still not mad at her because it's not my business."

Deidara didn't respond that. Instead, he just started to walk faster, but Gaara still kept the pace.

"I don't think they're dating." Gaara said, carefully.

"I don't care."

Why would he be jealous of her? He wasn't jealous. He didn't even like that guy – he was an emo, punk or whatever! Jackass and Deidara knew it from the start. He wasn't even Deidara's type. He just thought that she was stupid – that's all.

"Would you've been happier if he was dating Obito?"

"Yes, because they would share their stupidity."

"Not because he's a guy then?"

Deidara stopped walking and turned to face Gaara with a glare. "Stop saying such ridiculous things. And I don't want to talk about this anymore. If you want to keep nagging then leave, because I'm not in the mood." The red head nodded, a mix between sadness and surprise in his eyes. It hurt seeing him like that and it hurt talking to him like that, but the blonde was too angry to apologize. He would do it later. He kept walking, not caring if Gaara followed him or not.

Gaara kept silent when they walked back to their dorms. They stopped when seeing an empty room – a room looking like a living room at a rich family's house. There were three large sofas there, dressed in silk, carpets, a table with chairs, a fireplace, paintings hanging on the wall – everything. Deidara had to remind himself once again, that this was still a school, because once again he almost forgot. They sat down in the couch – opposite each other and remained silent. The blonde was too upset to talk and Gaara, knowing him well, knew it and just sat quietly, till the blonde would decide that he wanted to break the silence.

While sitting there, Deidara glaring at something unknown and Gaara playing with his own fingers, they heard and saw a worried Itachi rush towards them.

"I looked for you everywhere!" He said to Deidara, using his hands to speak just as much as his mouth did.

"Don't worry. Gaara saved me." The blonde said and tried to sound nice, even though the word 'saved' sounded rather insulting.

Itachi sighed as he let himself fall down on the couch beside Deidara, tired as if he had been running a marathon.

He was about to say something but didn't when even he saw Deidara's anger. "Are you angry?" He asked and the blonde shook his head without looking at him. There was an awkward silence and Itachi looked at Gaara for answers, but the red head just shrugged his shoulders.

"I'm a little angry," Deidara suddenly said, to not cause any misunderstandings, "But I don't want to talk about it."

"Then let's talk about something else, so you get something else on your mind." Itachi said and turned to face Deidara. "What class will you be taking?"

"I wanted art, but mother forced me to take singing and dancing."

He raised his thick eyebrows, just like Gaara did. "Both?" They asked in unison.

Deidara nodded, not looking as angry as before. "My family lives in Iwagakure. So, I won't go home during weekends. Maybe not even during holidays, so I'll have plenty of time. I'll be in the school dance too. I already talked to the _principal_, over the phone before arriving here, and to the man who gave me my scholarship. I'll start next week."

"Don't push yourself too hard. You'll have to work hard." Gaara said "And you'll only be here for two years."

"I will work hard." Deidara said and smiled a little. "Don't worry." Gaara and Itachi smiled too, when seeing the blonde's anger disappearing little by little. "Besides," Deidara said, this time grinning and sounding _as _cocky _as_ possible. "I heard my singing and dancing skills are pretty good." Both boys laughed, both because of Deidara and of relief. Being angry didn't suit him at all.

"Which class do you take?" Itachi asked Gaara.

"Acting classes." He answered. "And you?"

"Singing."

"Then you'll have to help me." Deidara said.

"Since you'll have to practice a lot, with the school dance and all, why don't you go and see if you can use the practice room afterschool? You can practice by yourself and in that way catch up with the others."

"Yeah, that's right! Why don't you ask the reception lady?" Itachi added.

"Are you kidding me? She scares the shit out of me."

Itachi and Gaara laughed, knowing exactly what Deidara was talking about. "You'll learn to live with it." Itachi said. "We'll go with you, so she doesn't eat you or anything."

-xxx-

The blonde talked to the scary lady, stammering and stuttering, and worked it out. She told him about the practice room, where he should go to find it and that she could give him permission to practice, from 9pm to 10pm. She also told him about the rules, mostly that he wasn't allowed to let anyone in when practicing and that he must report the days he wouldn't practice. Then she signed a paper which she gave to him – a proof of permission, since the students weren't allowed to be outside their room after 10pm, also Sunday to Thursday.

The school dance only practiced once a week – Tuesdays – which meant that Deidara had already missed this week's practice. He hadn't even talked to the one in charge so he could start his practice. But that didn't stop him from going to the practice room today. A lot of things had happened today – even though he had only been here for one day.

Dance always helped him to relax, well after art of course, but it was time for him to move on.

He walked over to the CD player to turn whatever he could find on, but he didn't manage to turn anything on when suddenly the door opened. He didn't have to turn around to see how it was; he just needed to look at the mirror in front of him. But when seeing who was standing in the doorway, he had to turn around because he didn't believe his eyes. He was about to say something when the other person, being just as surprised as Deidara was, spoke first.

"What are you doing here?" Sasori asked. He was too surprised to even sound rude and Deidara reminded himself that he hadn't heard Sasori speak till now. He had imagined, that Sasori's voice would be very deep, since… well, scary people always have a deep voice (in Deidara's opinion) but it wasn't. He had as the same, normal, quite cool voice as Deidara's.

"Practicing." Deidara answered.

"Why?"

"I'm in the school dance."

The red head stared at him with a surprised look on his face. But when understanding exactly what was going on, he glared. Deidara kind of felt a little more comfortable when seeing Sasori glare at him – having Sasori talk to him like… a normal person would… was weird and kind of scary.

"Why?" Sasori said again, but this time it sounded more like a threat then a question.

"You're in the school dance too?"

Deidara knew he didn't have to ask; Sasori's reaction made it obvious. "I'm fucking in charge of it."

Now that wasn't obvious. Did that mean the red head would be responsible for teaching Deidara everything? Deidara lost his breath. This guy was everywhere. Seriously. Maybe being in the school dance wasn't such a great idea.

But then he got a second thought – this wasn't about this guy. This was about Deidara doing what he wanted and Deidara working hard. So what? Who cares about Sasori?

"Well, I got permission from the reception lady." He said and tried to sound as unpleasant as possible (and as unpleasant as he dared.)

"I don't fucking care. Get out."

"No. I've already talked to her and she gave me permission. I don't mind you, but if it bothers you then please leave." Sasori's glare got even more intense. He looked at in him pure disgust and mumbled a low "fucking idiot" before leaving – slamming the door behind him with all his might. Unbelievable. That guy, really, was everywhere.

-xxx-

"How come you didn't tell me Sasori's in charge of the school dance?"

Itachi got out of their toilet and took the toothbrush out of his mouth to speak. "I didn't know. He hasn't been participating for a while, so I thought he quitted."

"Oh God, he's everywhere. And he uses the practice room afterschool." Deidara moaned in compliment and threw himself on his bed. "I'll have to practice with him!" He squealed in pain.

Itachi should be worried, that was what the blonde expected, but instead he laughed. "True. It even becomes funny. New students don't suffer from Madara Uchiha's gang until they at least have been here for a week. You really are unlucky."

That didn't help to cheer Deidara up. He sighed.

"Take one day at a time. It's just once a week anyway, right?" The brunette said, after leaving his toothbrush in the toilet, and walked over to turn the ceiling lamp off, so the two small lamps standing on bedside tables were the only source of light. "And you promised to work hard. We, your friends, support you." He walked over to his own bed. "But now, try to get some sleep. You had a pretty long day, even though you just arrived."

"It was a freaking 'try to survive'-day." Deidara complained.

Itachi laughed. He laid down in his bed and pulled his coverlet over him. "Just try to get some sleep." He said again and Deidara followed Itachi's example – nestling down in his own bed.

"I will. Thanks." He smiled. "Good night."

"Good night."

They turned the lamps off, leaving the room completely dark.

-xxx-

One hour passed. Two hours passed. Three hours passed. This bed was so much more comfortable than the empty bed back in Iwagakure. This bed wasn't as hard as the one Deidara had in his real room and the blonde often woke up with pain in his back and neck. But Deidara didn't care. A hard bed, ugly house, cheap furniture – he didn't care. He _missed_ it. He missed it so much that it hurt and being left alone with only himself and his memories only made things worse.

He glanced over at Itachi, but it was too dark for Deidara to see him. It didn't matter; he knew Itachi already was fast asleep. But Deidara couldn't sleep like that. At least not this night. He sat up, thinking about his mum and his brother. He missed them; his mother's cheering smile and the hugs this brother always gave him whenever Deidara was feeling down. He really needed one now. He remembered small things, like when his brother gave him his pocket money so the blonde could go and buy whatever he wanted. Or when Deidara broke something and his brother would take the blame. Suddenly these tiny things became so precious.

He felt the tears being at the top of the edge and he tried hard to hold them in. It was absurd, he thought, since he just arrived. But the thought of him being so far away from home for two whole years was still in the back of his mind. He didn't want to complain because he couldn't complain. His mother and brother had sent him here to give him a better future. Complaining would be the same thing as not being grateful. He was going to stay strong for his mother and brother and… for his dad. _Dad_...

The tears became impossible to stop. He cried silently, burying his face in his pillow. He missed them so much. He missed him so much. Then, he told himself once again to stay strong and dried his tears with the back of his hand and lay down. He shouldn't cry. Instead, he would call them tomorrow – it was too late doing it now. He would call them and tell them how much he missed them and how much he loved them. Thinking that cheered him up _a little_. He closed his eyes and tried to relax when he suddenly heard giggles coming from the corridor. Wasn't the clock like, 3am or something? Are people still being up? It's not even Friday yet.

"_Shh! You'll wake someone up._" He heard someone say. The giggles got a little louder and suddenly something, or someone, fell to the floor and someone burst out in laughter. "_For fuck's sake, Obito!_"

Deidara sat up. Obito? Then the person speaking must be Deidara's 'best friend'. Deidara swiftly raised himself from his bed before silently walking over to the door. He pressed his ear against the door.

"_I'll leave you here and I'll lock the door! We're like five meters away from our room, so stop it._" Sasori hissed, apparently not being in such a good mood as Obito was.

Curiosity took over and Deidara slowly and carefully opened the door, just a little but enough for him to peek. He saw their backs – Obito sitting on the floor, giggling and Sasori walking before stopping in front of a door. He dug in his pockets and took out some keys.

"I'll leave you there for real. I literally carried you all the way here so I won't help you up." He said in a low voice, but loud enough for the blonde to hear.

"Sasori~ Don't be like that!" The boy on the floor said in a loud and sloppy voice. Sasori ignored him and just opened the door to their room. Obito placed a hand on the wall to raise himself up before swaying over to Sasori, still giggling. Deidara widened his eyes – Obito wasn't actually drunk, was he? Sasori opened the door and placed Obito's arm over his shoulder to help him get inside.

He closed the door and locked it.


	4. Chapter 3

SasoDei 'Konoha Boarding School'

Chapter 3.

Waking up was weird. Deidara almost got a heart attack - completely forgetting where he was when he didn't recognize the walls or the bed. Even the smell was different.

"Good morning." He suddenly heard someone say, which made him jump in surprise again.

"Morning." He responded as a reflex, without thinking. His vision was still blurred and when he got a clear picture of his friend he widened his eyes. Itachi, being in progress of getting dressed, was only wearing his uniform pants.

Deidara hadn't thought about how well-trained Itachi actually was. He knew he was much stronger then the blonde himself, but he didn't know he had that kind of body. "I'm gay, you know." He said, still in a sleepy voice.

Itachi laughed, taking Deidara's comment as a compliment, and continued getting dressed, completely undisturbed.

They walked together to the kitchen everyone living on this floor shared and saw that there were already seven students there_. "Morning."_ Everyone except two or three persons said, which made Deidara surprised since he didn't expect them to talk to him. He thought that they probably were speaking to Itachi and not to him, but when both he and Itachi answered no one looked at him in a strange way.

The brunette showed Deidara where everything was, the refrigerator, the freezer, the dishwasher and so on while he told him about yet more rules according to the kitchen. He also told him that since Deidara hadn't had time to buy food, he could eat whatever Itachi had. Deidara – who was nodding and nodding while Itachi was talking – didn't really pay much attention, since he was constantly looking around; searching for a certain someone. He got relieved when he didn't see him, but that disappeared only after some seconds.

"Morning." Everyone suddenly said again and this time louder. Deidara turned to look who they were talking too and saw Sasori, who dragged his feet, his hair being all tousled and his eyelids constantly falling down. He passed the blonde, probably being too tired to care, and sat down on an empty chair at a table with four other people sitting.

Deidara glanced at him.

"Where's Obito?" Someone asked.

"He's not feeling well." The red head responded and yawned.

No wonder.

Itachi made his sandwiches, took his cereals out if Deidara wanted some and then told the blonde that he would go and get a seat. Deidara nodded again, still not really _listening_, and suddenly felt so unprotected when Itachi walked away. He felt like everyone was watching him. He carefully opened the refrigerator when hearing yet another person dragging his feet towards their kitchen. It was Obito, looking like he was a living dead. He had dark circles under his eyes and couldn't walk straight on.

"Go back to sleep." Sasori said.

"Thirsty." He simply answered in a hoarse voice "Water, Red~"

Sasori raised himself from his seat and walked over to where Deidara was standing, since he was standing beside the kitchen sink. Deidara tried to ignore him, with the motivation, that Sasori would probably be too tired to mind him. He opened the fridge to take out the milk that was standing on a shelf marked with Itachi's name. But tiredness didn't stop Sasori, when he saw the perfect opportunity for a comment while standing beside Deidara. "So it's true." He suddenly said and Deidara didn't know who he was talking to. "You really don't have money to buy your own food".

Deidara froze, since he realized that Sasori was talking to him. Then he tried to keep ignoring the guy.

"Itachi," Sasori called and got the brunette's attention. "if you continue like this, you'll end up like him."

People started to giggle and Deidara turned to look at Itachi's reaction. Itachi tried to ignore the red head as well.

Deidara sighed in his mind before taking a bowl out and grabbed the cereals Itachi had left out, when he suddenly felt a smell of alcohol. He looked up to see if Obito was standing near him, but Obito had walked over to sit on the chair Sasori was previously sitting on. He glanced over at Sasori and realized that the smell came from him.

Deidara opened the refrigerator again to return the milk and the exact moment he was about to take his bowl Sasori let his hand carelessly knock the blonde's bowl down. The bowl broke, spilling out the cereals and milk all over the floor. Deidara was slow and couldn't do other then stare. "Oh God, sorry." Sasori said, not really sounding that apologetic before walking over to Obito and his other friends, with a glass of water in his hand.

Everyone, mostly the red head's friends, burst out in laughter; except for Itachi who immediately wanted to help his friend. But someone stopped him – the guy that earlier had asked for Obito – by putting his hand on Itachi's shoulder and force him back to his seat. Sasori grinned and Itachi realized that there were more than six people on the red head's side in this room. Deidara had to clean up the mess by himself.

Itachi waited till everyone left before he could go and help the blonde, who still hadn't cleaned up the milk, cereals and the broken bowl. "You'll get late for class." Deidara said when he saw Itachi grabbing some kitchen roll paper.

"It doesn't matter. I'm sorry."

Deidara smiled gently, even though he wasn't at his happiest mood right now. "Don't be silly" He said. "It wasn't your fault".

-xxx-

When opening the door to their classroom they realized their math teacher was taking the register. He had long white hair, as the other teacher too, but he seemed younger. He wore glasses and had ponytail. The guy, turned to look at them – his glasses resting on his long nose. He didn't look nice. "You're late." He just said.

Deidara looked at the clock hanging on the wall, behind their teacher. They were four minutes late.

"We apologize, teacher." Itachi said and bowed. Deidara did the same, before they walked over to sit on their seats.

"Is this a good way to start a new lesson," The man said and looked down at his paper. "Iwa Deidara, huh?"

"'I'm sorry."

Some people giggled and Deidara sighed soundlessly.

"Akasuna Sasori." Their teacher continued making sure all students were there, after giving the blonde one last glare.

"Here."

The teacher looked at the empty seat beside Sasori. "Where's Uchiha Obito?" He asked.

Deidara's eyes widened, _"Uchiha? Does that mean, Itachi and Obito are relatives?"_

"He's sick."

The man snorted before continuing taking the register.

After sitting, Deidara turned to his brunette friend, looking curiously. Itachi looked back at him, "Something's wrong?"

"Are you and Obito relatives?"

Itachi slightly smiled, shaking his head, "No. It's just our last names, that _bonds_ each other. In Konoha, people are separated as clans and the name of the clan is our last name. So Uchiha was ours." He chuckled, "I would never like to have a relative like him."

Deidara chuckled back, "Konoha is such a strange village."

-xxx-

No one bothered Deidara during math class (except for the teacher who didn't seem to like him at all), since the teacher was there. Deidara thought that he could gladly start this day pretty normally, almost forgetting about today's morning.

-xxx-

After math the class spit up; to singing classes, acting classes and dance classes. On Deidara's schedule was 'singing class' written. Sasori didn't take singing classes and the blonde couldn't be happier. Besides, their teacher was nice and he had Itachi there with him. Singing officially became Deidara's favorite subject.

They day went pretty smoothly and Deidara could sigh out in relief. He finally felt like a normal student, except from the hard pushes he received from unknown persons he hadn't paid any attention to before, when Deidara passed. The blonde could easily guess that they probably were Sasori and Obito's friends and he tried his best to ignore them. During lunch he met up with Gaara and Naruto and after that he continued his lessons.

-xxx-

The next day was pretty much the same, except that he got a better morning since he decided to wake up earlier than the rest to do his breakfast, so he could eat it in his room. Itachi, not wanting Deidara to eat by himself, did the same thing and they had a peacefully morning together. And about the dance practices, Sasori and Deidara agreed that they would split the hour. Deidara would practice from 9p.m to 9.30p.m and the red head had made himself very clear when telling him that he did not want to see Deidara there a second after 9.30.

That was how the days passed – with pleasant and unpleasant teachers, classes, students (mostly Sasori and Obito) saying something mean every now and then and Deidara being pushed whenever he walked passed someone that didn't like him. But Deidara could live with it.

Then the weekend came and Deidara had for the first time, since arriving here, two wonderful days. He didn't see any of the mean guys even once – Itachi told him that they rarely were there during the weekends. So in other words; no one bullied him. During those two days, the blonde studied peacefully with the help of his three friends.

Itachi and Naruto helped him with his singing practice and Naruto helped him with math and English. They also gave him a properly tour around the school and Deidara couldn't be grateful enough, since thanks to them he didn't have to walk around with a map all the time. When Sunday passed he couldn't help but feel a little sad.

-xxx-

Monday passed like all the other days. Tuesday was different though since he was going to practice with the school dance for the first time, afterschool. Deidara was nervous all day since he had no idea what to expect. Being there with Sasori and his friends for two hours and with the red head in charge... He was so going to die.

Sasori didn't treat him any different today though. When having a break, after their English class, Sasori made sure to walk extremely close to him – closer then he should since the corridor was not narrow – only to push him hard when passing by him. Deidara hit a locker and dropped the books he was holding. Sasori and his two unknown friends laughed. Itachi, who was in the toilet, was needed since they all became braver when Deidara was alone.

The dance practice was... well, Deidara should have expected it. Everyone except Sasori was already there and to his surprise no one treated him any different. He sat down on the floor watching everybody else. Some of them were sitting down too, chatting with each other and others were practicing without music. When the door opened Deidara was the only one who froze. Sasori, carrying a bag, walked over to the other side of the room – where the CD-player was standing. He actually looked like a normal student – laughing with the others and talking to them without seeming to be superior. But Deidara still felt uncomfortable.

When starting everyone, except from Sasori and Deidara, took their positions. The blonde was still sitting down against the wall behind the students and Sasori sat down beside the CD-player – against the huge mirror that covered one entire wall, in front of the students. He turned the music on and everyone stared to dance. Deidara didn't know what to do. Should he try to imitate them or should he just watch? He felt both confused and forgotten since he was pretty sure that he couldn't count on Sasori. He looked over at the red head anyway who, of course, completely ignored him and just looked at the people dancing. After watching the students' for forty minutes Deidara decided that he had to do something. Or else there was no point in being here.

He raised himself and walked over to Sasori, without disturbing the dancing students and sat down beside him – but not too _close_ so it would be uncomfortable. "What am I supposed to do?" He asked.

Sasori glared at him, snorted and ignored him.

"_I suppose I'll just keep watching."_ Deidara sighed.

That's what he did for two whole hours – he watched. It was probably one of the most boring things he had done in a long time. After they had practiced for an hour Sasori gave them a break. During that break almost every girl that was there took the chance to act _cute_, _sexy_, _attractive_ in front of Sasori. Their high pitch voices asking 'Sasori-kun, did I do fine?' or 'How was I, Sasori-kun?' made Deidara feel like he wanted to vomit. He glared at them but then felt sick by just watching them and turned to face something else – the wall.

When the break was over they all returned to their practice and Deidara returned to his watching. Sasori kept ignoring him and it wouldn't surprise Deidara if the red head actually forgot that Deidara was there in the first place.

But Sasori wasn't totally heartless. Since he knew that Deidara would practice today at 9p.m he left the disk inside the CD-player, so Deidara could use it when he was going to practice.

-xxx-

Deidara had the music on so loud that the floor was vibrating. He tried to remember the choreography but only managed to remember parts of it. But it didn't matter – he had already decided that he would try anyway. He danced; his legs and arms moving to the fast music. He watched himself in the mirror as he tried to imitate what the others had done. His movements were hard and fast and his heart started to beat faster while his breath became heavier and heavier. Suddenly, he stopped. He realized that he was doing something wrong.

He repeated the song and danced again but once again stopped after a while. "_That's okay,"_ He thought. He just needed some minutes to remember the choreography properly.

He tried again, but no.

And again. Still wrong.

He knew he did it wrong but he couldn't put the finger on what he was doing wrong. He just knew that when he danced it didn't look like it should. But he wouldn't give up and tried again. Wrong again.

He started to feel frustrated, both because he didn't remember and for thinking about Sasori that didn't want to cooperate at all. He dried the sweat drops on his forehead with the back of his palm. His arms and legs started to feel heavy and he sat down to give himself a rest. He had only one word in his mind: Wrong, wrong, wrong. He wanted to scream – how the heck was he supposed to catch up with the others like this?!

The door suddenly opened and Deidara realized that he had been here for more than half an hour. Oops. Sasori did not look happy.

"We had an agreement – get out."

"I wouldn't be here if you had helped me earlier today." Deidara responded back.

"Oh, that sucks." Sasori entered the room and put his bag down, the big bag he had with him earlier. He took his jacket off and threw it over the bag. "Get out."

"No, because you'll help me."

The tone the blonde was using when speaking to him was disturbingly rude. Sasori glared at him. How dared he?

"I won't help you with anything. You're wasting my time." Sasori pointed at the door. "Get. The. Fuck. Out."

Deidara raised himself from the floor and turned to look the red head in the eyes. Sasori was surprised that Deidara didn't obey him, but he was good in hiding it. "Stop acting like a kid. You're in charge of this, right? So it's your responsibility to teach me. Or else you better give your position to someone more mature."

Neither Deidara nor Sasori knew where the blonde got his confident from – probably since he was so fucking tired of all this, and they both got quite surprised. Sasori didn't respond back to that since he wasn't stupid – Deidara had a huge point there. Instead, he gave him his well-known glare before walking over to the CD-player.

"If you talk to me like that again I swear you'll regret it." He said, instead of saying 'Yes, I will help you'. Deidara smiled a little, enjoying his victory and Sasori didn't fail to notice. "And don't misunderstand anything." He said.

"I'll still treat you like the piece of shit you are."

"Yes, yes." The blonde sighed.

Sasori turned the music on and started to move to its rhythm. His movements were untidy and completely weak, only to show how completely unmotivated he was to learn the blonde the dance. He didn't even try to do it good and Deidara thought that that this must be a joke. Was a guy like that in charge of the school dance?

But suddenly something happened and Sasori became more and more serious in what he was doing till he lost himself. He danced like there was no effort in what he was doing, even so he danced beautifully – sliding over the floor with such smoothness and moving his arms in legs in perfect synchronization. Deidara widened his eyes, being hypnotized in his movements. He felt jealous. Sasori made it look like dancing was the easiest thing a person could do – till you try it yourself, of course. The blonde had a hard time believing that he was dancing the same dance. He had tried to do just a moment ago. Deidara didn't wake up from his admiration till Sasori stopped dancing.

"How long have you been dancing?" He asked, his eyes still being huge.

"Some years."

"I changed my mind."

"What?"

"I don't want to dance with you. You'll only make me look bad."

Sasori chuckled and to Deidara's surprise it didn't sound mean or like he was making fun of him. "Probably," He answered and it actually sounded like he was joking a little with him. "Your turn."

The blonde knew Sasori's (kind of) niceness would disappear now – Deidara hadn't remember the steps since he was too busy looking at Sasori like he was a God. He laughed awkwardly. "I didn't really... Just show me one more time."

Deidara had even prepared himself for the comment and/or the nasty look. But instead, Sasori just walked over to the CD-player to replay the song. He pointed and told Deidara where to stand before he pressed "play". Deidara felt a little embarrassed and not as confident as before when standing beside Sasori now – after seeing how he danced. But Sasori didn't look at him when dancing but just at himself and that made Deidara more comfortable.

When the song stopped Sasori walked over to sit in front of the smaller guy.

"Your turn." He said again and waited.

"Are you going to watch?" Deidara asked, a little nervous.

The question was so stupid that Sasori, being Sasori, couldn't resist. "No, idiot, I just find it very amusing spending my time with you." He answered and started to talk with his usual rudeness.

Deidara cleared his throat. "You don't have to stay. Thank you for your help."

"Don't be such a pussy. I have already wasted too much time on you and I want to see that it at least was worth it."

"What if it wasn't?"

Sasori smirked. "Then I'll be extremely happy since I'll kick you out."

The younger widened his eyes. "You can't do that."

"Try me."

Deidara had no idea if Sasori was being serious or not. If Sasori really could kick him out then why would he wait till now? But then again, the blonde couldn't forget the fact that Sasori was Sasori. He looked over at the clock – 9.58 p.m. "It's already 10."

"I'm starting to lose my patience." The red head just answered back. Deidara sighed. Then he decided to just get it over with and nodded to Sasori – allowing him to turn the music on.

Deidara managed to do a pretty good job when trying to ignore the fact that Sasori was watching him. But then he just had to ignore it since he had to use his entire mind to remember the steps. He thought about what Sasori had said about kicking him out and forced himself to do his best. He danced like he remembered – for a moment completely forgetting that Sasori was there. But when he for a second glanced over at the red head, instead of looking at himself, he saw that Sasori was staring at him. He was supposed to watch him, not stare at him like that. It remembered him about the first day when he arrived and Sasori had been staring at him just like he was doing now, with intense eyes. It became too uncomfortable and Deidara couldn't concentrate anymore. He stopped.

"W-what?" He asked.

"What what?"

"Why are you staring at me like that?"

"I'm not staring."

There was an extremely awkwardness in the air – except for this time Deidara saw that Sasori, for the first time, felt awkward too.

"Well, how did I do?" He asked, and thought about the girls that had asked the same thing. Except that Deidara's voice wasn't as high as theirs and Sasori's respond wasn't as gentle as when he was talking to them.

"Yeah." He just muttered before raising himself, grabbed his bag and left. Was that even an answer?


	5. Chapter 4

SasoDei 'Konoha Boarding School'

Chapter 4.

Deidara almost got scolded when returning to his dorm. Itachi made himself very clear; the principal did not like it when students broke the rules. Deidara was twenty minutes late, which meant that he had broken the first rule: Do not be outside your dorm after 10p.m. But Deidara was an expert with cute smiles and eyes – so Itachi ended up with just saying a "Don't be late again. You're lucky no one saw you."

-xxx-

Today it was Friday and Deidara woke up half an hour before everybody else, as always, to make his breakfast. He tried to wake Itachi up too, but he was too tired to wake up and Deidara was too tired to try. Instead he decided to be a good friend and do breakfast both to him and to his brunette friend. He slipped his feet into his slippers before silently open his door and walk over to the kitchen. When being almost there he suddenly heard a door open somewhere behind him. He froze and hoped that when he turned around he would see Itachi standing there. But it wasn't Itachi he saw; he saw a person that didn't belong there at all – a girl. The girl got out from Obito and Sasori's room and when she realized that she wasn't alone in the corridor she looked at Deidara with the same surprised look that Deidara had. They stared at each other for a moment before she suddenly blushed and almost ran out of sight. The blonde got that disgusting feeling again just like the other day. "_Maybe she was Obito's girlfriend,"_ He thought. But then he shook that thought out of his mind – because he really didn't care.

-xxx-

"Does Obito have a girlfriend?" Deidara asked when he and Itachi were sitting at their little table in their room, eating their breakfast. Itachi shrugged his shoulders. "I saw a girl getting out from their dorm."

"Obito didn't sleep in his room this night."

Deidara widened his eyes and dropped the spoon he was holding. "What?" Was the only thing he could think of saying.

"They do that sometimes."

"Do what?"

"You know what."

"No I don't."

Even Itachi find it uncomfortable talking about it. He scratched his head and thought about which words to use. "It's not our business anyway." He decided to say instead. "So don't butt in." Itachi got back to his eating while Deidara just stared at his cereals.

"What?" Itachi asked after a while, when seeing the bothersome look on Deidara's face.

"Nothing." The blonde responded before raising himself from his seat. "I just lost my appetite."

While Itachi was brushing his teeth and getting dressed, Deidara took all their plates back to the kitchen. It was still very early and the students weren't supposed to wake up yet. But there already were two students there, talking.

When Deidara recognized the voice of one of them he stopped walking and stayed out of sight. Since the blonde didn't hear sounds that told him that the guys were doing something he guessed that they probably were just sitting at a table, chatting.

"Is it your turn to clean the kitchen?" He heard Sasori say. The guy he was talking too must have shaken his head. It was probably Obito. "Watch the notice board." Sasori said.

"Why the fuck?" The unknown guy said, with a voice that did not belong to Obito. "You think it's your turn?"

Sasori didn't have time to answer before the other guy spoke again.

"Room 208." He said. "Whose room is it?"

Since Sasori didn't respond immediately Deidara guessed that he was thinking. "Isn't it Uchiha Itachi's room?" Sasori said.

"And that new guy? The poor one?" The other one added.

Deidara would have glared at him if he could see him. Must they be so freaking snobbish?

Sasori chuckled. "Yeah, I think it's them." There was a silence, but only just a few seconds. "Hidan." Sasori suddenly said and in Deidara's opinion it sounded very suspicious. He could imagine that Sasori was smirking.

"Don't you think it's pretty clean here?" The guy named Hidan laughed (His laugh was unbelievable scary.) – completely understanding Sasori's point.

Deidara understood it too and he got an impulsive feeling of wanting to scream at them in their face. But he still had his common sense left and the only thing he did was to sigh soundlessly and return to his dorm.

"Didn't you return the plates?" Itachi asked when Deidara returned.

"Prepare yourself." The blonde answered with. "We'll have a lot," He widened his eyes and emphasized the words 'a lot'. "to clean." Itachi raised his eyebrows, not understanding what the blonde was talking about. But he just had to go to the kitchen to understand.

The kitchen was a total mess, almost all plates that this kitchen had were dirty and food was on the floor and even on the walls. It was so chaotic that Sasori and the guy named Hidan impossible could have done it by themselves. That was the first time Deidara saw Itachi furious. But the brunette controlled himself and just muttered swearwords and quietly insulted Sasori, Obito, Hidan, a guy named Kakuzu and some other names Deidara couldn't remember.

"Does it feel like home now, you poor imbecile?" They suddenly heard Obito say. When turning around they saw Sasori, a guy with stitches and long brown hair_, also_ from their class – Deidara couldn't remember his name though – and Obito standing in the door way. When Sasori and the 'stichy' guy laughed Itachi raised himself, totally pissed off. Deidara was quick to grab his shirt and pull him back. He glared at Itachi, with eyes that told him to not do anything stupid. Itachi gave the three boys a nasty look before getting back to help Deidara clean.

And so the day started. It was a usual day, like always, except that Deidara experienced what Gaara meant when saying that Obito became 'brain dead' when Sasori wasn't around. During their singing class Deidara almost got a shock when Obito neither said nor did anything to him. He was just like a regular student. He was not nice to him and he was not mean to him, he just acted like he didn't know him.

9pm was Deidara at the dance practice room – like always. He was pretty good with catching up with the school dance. Sasori had given him a theoretical lesson for about six minutes before giving him three disks. Deidara didn't even have time to say 'thank you' before Sasori left, almost running away. When the red head was explaining everything he was talking extremely fast and low, probably because he didn't want anyone to see him talking to Deidara of all people, and when Deidara tried to ask something he glared and threaten him with not helping him at all. In other words; Sasori wasn't really much of a help. But that didn't matter since Deidara was really good. When he didn't remember the steps or the choreography he just improvised. He didn't care; he just loved dancing and didn't care if he was following Sasori's choreography or not.

He was so deeply focused in what he was doing that he, for the second time since making the deal, forgot the time.

"Why are you still here?" Sasori asked in irritation, when seeing him.

"I'm sorry." Deidara walked over to his own bag. "I was just leaving."

The red head took his outer clothes off before opening the big bag he always had with him when practicing, and took out a blank tank top. "Leave the disk inside the CD-player." He said.

Deidara didn't have to turn around to look at Sasori, since the mirror was there. He didn't answer to what Sasori said since he wasn't listening. He was looking intensely at the red head through the mirror reflection, watching as Sasori took his shirt off to replace it with the tank top. He was really skinny; Deidara could clearly see it now.

But he still had some visible muscles which he probably got from dancing. He really was good looking, Deidara couldn't deny that. Too bad he was such an asshole though.

"Are you listening?" Sasori asked, his voice being a mix between annoyance and irritation since he noticed that Deidara wasn't listening, waking up the blonde from his thoughts.

"Yes." Deidara said since he didn't want to make Sasori even more irritated. He had no idea what he was saying 'yes' to. He kept looking at Sasori, who crouched down again and started digging in his bag. "Can I ask you a question?" The blonde suddenly asked, still looking at Sasori through the mirror. Sasori didn't respond and Deidara didn't know if it was because no, he could not as a question or because Sasori knew that the blonde would ask anyway. "Are you _mean_ to me because you don't like me or because your friends tells you so?"

Sasori stopped with what he was doing and almost tensed his body. But he didn't answer. Instead, he just continued packing up his things – this time a pair of shoes – and pretended that he wasn't listening.

"I think you're doing a lot against your will." Deidara said and watched the red head all the time while speaking. He wanted to see his reaction. "You don't seem like a bad person."

That was the last straw. Sasori lost his patience and raised himself only to slam the door open for Deidara to leave. "Then think again, dickhead." He hissed.

Deidara sighed before grabbing his own bag and leaving. _"It was at least worth trying,"_ He thought as Sasori slammed the door behind him.

It was raining when Deidara got out of the building where the practice room was. The weather was totally unexpected he was only wearing jeans, a T-shirt and a summer jacket. He didn't even have something to cover his head with. And he was carrying a heavy bag so he couldn't even run fast back to his dorm. And to add yet another thing – his dorm was on the opposite side, so he had to cross the whole school area before being there. He sighed heavily, before making himself ready.

When finally arriving he walked up the stairs with heavy steps. The jacket he was wearing wasn't really much of a help – even his shirt was wet. At least the school uniform would keep his T-shirt dry. His wet jeans were pasted to his legs; making it very uncomfortable. He walked like a penguin, waddling without bending his knees. He dragged himself to his door – imagining how wonderful it would be with a blanket right now. He knocked the door and called for his roommate but no one opened. Then he dug in his pants pockets but didn't find what he was searching for; the keys. Instead he took his cell phone out and saw that someone had sent him a message.

_I'm out with some friends, if you don't find me in the dorm._

_Itachi_.

Deidara put the cell phone back in his jeans pocket before checking if his keys were in the pockets of his jacket. No, they weren't. He searched for them in his bag but still didn't find anything. No problems, he thought and grabbed his phone again. He called Itachi and refused to believe it when he heard Itachi's phone calling from the other side of the door. Hadn't he brought the phone with him?! He hung up the phone before digging in all his pockets again. Nothing. Then he realized that that he hadn't brought the keys with him in the first place and they were probably laying on his bedside table right now.

Today just _wasn't_ Deidara's day.

He moaned in frustration. Who knows for how long Itachi would be out? He kept knocking on the door and search in his pockets and bag again, even though he knew it was completely useless. Suddenly he heard steps walking towards him and he begged, hoping from the bottom of his heart, that it would be Itachi. But with the luck he had today it would surprise him if it actually was him.

And of course, it wasn't. The boy walking towards the corridor was not Itachi but Lee Akasuna Sasori. Of course it would be him. The day couldn't possibly get any worse. Deidara almost moaned out loud in complainant again, but managed to stop himself. Sasori – with his red wet hair pasted to his face – walked passed the blonde without giving him one singe look and stopped in front of a door looking exactly like the one Deidara was standing in front. The only difference was the number; the door in front of him had the number '205' while Deidara's had '208'. He watched as Sasori, being just as wet as Deidara was, searched for his keys in his pockets and unlike the blonde he actually opened his door.

"..Sasori." Deidara called impulsively, before Sasori entered his room. He realized that he was about to do something he probably would never forgive himself for. But what else could he do? He was desperate. Sasori turned to face him, a surprised look on his face, but he didn't say anything.

"I forgot my keys." He said awkwardly.

The red head stared at him for a moment, not understanding what that had to do with him. Then he entered his room, without saying a word and closed the door behind him.

Deidara wanted to punch him. How could anyone be so freaking heartless?! He sighed in frustration and was about to curse out loud when he heard the door open. He looked at where the sound was coming from and only got to see something white being thrown at him. The white thing, being very soft, hit his face and then he heard the door being closed again. He grabbed it to inspect it and to his surprise he saw that it was a folded towel and inside a white T-shirt. Deidara smiled. "Idiot..." He mumbled softly to himself.

When changing to the T-shirt he stayed there in the corridor, sitting beside his door. He felt like a homeless child right now. He chuckled a little at the thought while thinking about Obito and Sasori. Then he sighed and tried to prepare himself for the long wait.

It was Friday night and the students, at least on this floor, where rarely there this at this point of time. And it was very quiet on this floor, so Deidara could easily guess that there were very few students that were inside their dorms now. At least he knew Sasori was in his room. He looked at the door marked with the number '205'. He sighed and put the towel over him, as a blanket, since he was freezing thanks to the water. At least his upper body wasn't wet anymore. But his jeans and legs still were which made it extremely uncomfortable to sit down. It was uncomfortable to stand up too, so it didn't really matter.

After sitting there for almost two hours he finally heard some steps walking towards him. "Please, please, please, please," He thought as the steps became louder and louder. He turned his head and saw his hero.

"Itachi!" He yelled as he flew up from his seat and almost threw himself over the taller one. Itachi laughed a little, not really knowing what was going on, when Deidara suddenly hugged him hard. Then, the blonde pulled away and glared at him. "Where have you been?!" He asked, like a mother would ask her child.

"With some friends." He said and raised his eyebrows even more, if that even was possible. "I texted you."

"Right." Deidara said after giving himself some seconds to think. "You did."

Itachi chuckled. "Why are you waiting here?"

"I forgot my keys. I've been waiting here for two hours."

"Really? _God_, and I didn't even bring my cell phone." He said and Deidara saw that he got a bad conscience. "I'm sorry."

Deidara shook his head. "Don't be. It wasn't your fault. I mean, I was the careless one. Just open the door, please."

The blonde almost moaned when changing from his wet and cold jeans to his warm, grey sweatpants. But he didn't, since he probably would scare the heck out of Itachi if he did. Instead he threw himself on his bed, feeling like the most satisfied person earth. Then he looked at the T-shirt and towel that didn't belong to him, before raising himself up again.

"Where are you going?" Itachi, who was sitting on his own bed with his laptop, asked when seeing that Deidara was making his way out of the room.

"I'll just return this." Deidara answered and grabbed the shirt and towel.

"Whose is it?"

The blonde laughed. "You wouldn't believe me if I told you."

He carefully knocked the door and felt his heart beat a little faster. No wonder – he was voluntarily entering the enemies' territory. He heard someone say something and guessed that it was a "Come in", even thought it didn't sound like it. He slowly opened the door, as if he was afraid a monster would attack him if he wasn't being careful.

The room, being impressively clean, was almost like his and Sasori's; two beds on either side of the room, a desk with two chairs, a door to their bathroom and two wardrobes – all this looking exactly like it did in Deidara's room.

But what this room also had was a big television, a CD-player, two laptops and even a little couch, in front of their television. It didn't look like a student's room in a school – but just a teenage room belonging to two snobbish brats.

One funny thing with this room, Deidara thought, was that one side was completely pink and full of a pretty attractive girl's photos, who had a brown eyes and short hair, while the other side hadn't have any photos just dark colors.

"I need you to help me with something." Sasori said.

He was sitting at the desk, his back facing Deidara, and he was... studying? Deidara cleared his throat to get Sasori's attention, since he knew that what the red head just had said wasn't meant to him. Sasori turned around and when he did Deidara got ever more surprised. Sasori was wearing glasses and immediately took them off when realizing that the blonde wasn't Obito. He glared.

"I just wanted to return this." Deidara said and held up the shirt and towel so Sasori could see it.

"There." Sasori simply answered and pointed at the bed with a dark brown coverlet. He turned around again and sat back down on his chair. Deidara did as he was told and was about to leave when he glanced over at the abandoned glasses on the desk.

"I didn't know you wore glasses." He said, surprised. He knew he probably shouldn't mention it but he couldn't resist.

"Only when I'm reading." Sasori was quick to answer, without turning around.

"You look good in them". The blonde didn't know why he said that but he knew that he always had been an honest person – he couldn't help it. He never got to know what Sasori would have responded since the door suddenly went open.

"Sasori, I–" Obito started but went silent when seeing Deidara there. He looked at him in surprise before turning to look at him nastily. Then he just ignored him – as always.

"I guess I'll just leave." Deidara said and got no respond from neither of them. "Thanks anyway."

Before closing the door behind him he heard Obito say: "Ew, what was he doing here? Don't let him in!" and Sasori responding: "I won't."


	6. Chapter 5

SasoDei 'Konoha Boarding School'

Chapter 5.

The 10pm-rule didn't count today and Deidara was incredible bored. When he returned from Sasori and Obito's room he saw, that Itachi was studying. He knew he should do it too but he wasn't in the mood for it and didn't have any plans of doing it either. He thought about asking Itachi do to something with him but he knew that the brunette had way too much discipline for that. Instead he thought about another person, someone he had a little more influence on, and stretched his arm over to his bedside table where his cell phone was lying.

"Hello?" Gaara said in the phone.

"Hey, Gaara. It's me, Deidara."

"Oh, hey."

"What are you doing?"

"Nothing."

"Do you want to go for a walk?"

"Now?

"Yes. I'm bored. Are you busy?"

Gaara was silent for a moment. "Uh..." He said and Deidara could hear that he was doing something. He was probably studying too. "No." He finally said, but didn't sound very honest. "Uh, no." He went silent again before repeating himself. "No, I'm not." He said again and this time sounded more honest. "I'll just... change clothes. I'll be over in a minute."

Deidara knew the red head well and he knew that he had interrupted him in something. "It's okay if you're busy. We can do it some other time."

"No, no." Gaara said and Deidara could hear that he was opening his wardrobe. "I'll be there in a minute."

Deidara smiled. "I'll be waiting."

And as promised, only after just some minutes Gaara knocked the door. The blonde told Itachi goodbye before putting his jacket and shoes on. Then he opened the door.

"Were you studying?" Deidara asked suspiciously when getting out of his dorm.

"No." Gaara answered but Deidara could tell he was lying.

He sighed over dramatically, only to show his red haired friend how hopeless he was. Gaara chuckled. Before they left Deidara got a feeling that someone was watching them, exactly the same feeling he had the first day he arrived here. He turned around and saw that Sasori and Obito's bedroom door was opened, only enough for someone to peek at them. He saw Obito smirking before closing the door. Gaara looked at Deidara with a questioning look while the blonde just shrug his shoulders.

As soon as they got out from the school area Deidara got a feeling of freedom that he couldn't describe. He felt both happy and relaxed. He grabbed the red head by the arm and Gaara immediately froze while getting his cheeks a little redder. "Why are you being so shy?" Deidara asked when he saw Gaara's reaction.

"I'm not shy."

"Yes you are."

"No, I'm just tired."

Deidara laughed. "Tired and blushing?"

Gaara didn't reply and Deidara hadn't expected him to do so either. They walked in silence. It was rarely they experienced an uncomfortable silence together, even though they were so different. Deidara loved talking while the red head wasn't really good at it. But they knew how to compromise, without ever making it awkward. They knew how to talk with their eyes and body. Words were rarely needed.

"I was really sad when you left." Deidara suddenly said. Gaara didn't answer. He didn't even look at his friend. The only thing he did was to blush. _Again_. "See!" Deidara laughed. "You're blushing!"

"No, I'm not. Stop it."

The blonde laughed again, finding his friend's shyness extremely cute.

"How are your parents?" Gaara asked to change the subject. "And your brother?"

"Brother is fine. He's still working. And my mom's fine too. She still asks about you, you know, every now and then. Like, 'how's Gaara-kun? Have you talked to Gaara-kun?'." Deidara tried to talk as high-pitched as possible and somehow tried to sound like his mother. But he just ended up sounding like he was in pain which made the red head laugh.

Gaara's laugh was rare; he wasn't an angry person but just a person that was always very serious. Making Gaara laugh made the blonde's heart warm. It always had. But then the red head stopped laughing when he noticed that Deidara hadn't mentioned his father. He didn't know whether he should bring it up or not. But he did it anyway, with the thought that if something really had happened then Deidara would probably feel better if he talked about it.

"And your dad?" He asked and tried to smoothly say it while trying to hide the fact that he actually was worried about the answer. "Is he still sick?"

The shining aura Deidara always had immediately disappeared. He swallowed and cleared his throat, as if trying to get a hold of his voice, before answering. "He got worse."

Gaara didn't have to ask more to understand. "I'm sorry." Was the only thing he could think of to say.

Deidara smiled, a way of trying to tell the red head that he was fine. But Gaara saw right through him. "It's alright." He said. "Thanks."

They both went silent again and Gaara tried to quickly come up with something more to say. "Do you want to talk about it?"

Deidara shook his head. "It's okay."

"I know I'm not that good with words. But I'm a good listener."

The older one smiled again, only this time a little happier. "I know." He stopped walking which made Gaara stop as well. "You can hug me instead." This time Gaara didn't blush. Instead he just stared at Deidara, as if he was trying to figure out if Deidara was messing with him or not. The blonde laughed. "You're so slow." He said before hugging the younger by his waist.

Yes, Gaara was slow; because it took some seconds for him to realize that Deidara was not messing with, and respond the hug.

"You've grown." Deidara said when the younger hugged him back.

Gaara chuckled soundlessly, but Deidara could feel it since he was being so close; his head on the red head's shoulder. "I've always been taller."

"Stop bragging."

They both laughed a little and then stayed liked that in silence. Until Gaara broke it. "Deidara?" He said and the blonde could hear that he was hesitating.

"What?"

"I need to tell you something."

Deidara pulled away from the hug to show that he was listening, since Gaara suddenly was sounding like he had something really important to say. But the red head never got to finish what he wanted to say, because a group of guys interrupted them.

"What have we here?" A voice behind Deidara and Gaara said. They both turned around and almost lost their breath. Ten guys were standing there, all covering their faces with something. The one speaking had a scarf that covered all his face except from his eyes. The ones that didn't have a scarf had pulled down their cap to cover their eyes while others used their hood.

This could impossibly be a good sign. Deidara and Gaara looked at each other, asking with the eyes if the man was talking to them (even if it was obvious), before turning to look at the one speaking.

"What are two turtle doves like you doing out here at this hour?" Another one, standing beside the one how previously spoke, asked. They both had unknown voices but when Deidara looked at his friend again he got a feeling, that Gaara knew who they were. The guys standing behind them were chuckling and probably grinning too. The one speaking now was taller and stronger than both Gaara and Deidara together, compared to the first one who was tall but skinny. Deidara moved some steps closer to the red head, not knowing if they should respond or not.

"We're on our way home." Gaara answered and Deidara could hear the effort he made in trying to sound calm.

While responding Gaara took a small step forward to stand in front of Deidara. The blonde grabbed his hand, without the guys noticing, even though they were standing dangerously close to the two boys. Were they drunk? Deidara hoped so since you could easily run away from clumsy drunk guys. But reality was cruel; they didn't seem drunk at all, but just very dangerous.

"Oh, you're on your way home." The skinny one said and nodded, as if he just had learned something very useful and important. "Then I guess we shouldn't bother you." He said and looked at Deidara, whose body was shaking and face was pale. He smirked – Deidara could see it in the taller one's eyes.

Gaara didn't reply that, but instead grabbed his friend's hand harder – getting a very bad feeling. Deidara could almost hear Gaara's heartbeat. Or was it his own?

"Well, I guess we'll be leaving." The skinny one said. He was about to turn around, or at least it looked like it, when he instead suddenly pushed Deidara so hard that he fell to the ground, on his knees and hands, with a squeal.

Then everything started. Three guys made sure to grab the red head hard by his arms, to prevent him from interfering when the other guys took turns to kick the kneeling blonde. Deidara didn't see how many of them were hitting him, since he was desperately trying to cover his face with his arms – receiving kicks on his back and stomach. He could hear Gaara screaming his name, with a broken voice and he could hear laughs and insults coming from the group of guys. He didn't even know if they were using their feet or hands to hit him. All he knew was that he was scared – scared for his own sake and for Gaara's and he was crying. He could feel the warm blood running down from his nose and he lost his breath. The asphalt started to rip up his chin and cheeks when he desperately tried to prevent the punches and kicks.

He screamed, cried and called for help but no one came to his rescue. He thought about Gaara – what were they doing to him? He was about to die – he could swear it. That was the only thing he had in mind. _Death, death, death _and _Gaara_. He was going to die and so was his younger friend. Soon he couldn't even breathe with his nose and had to take deep breath with his mouth. Every time he breathed it felt like he was going to vomit – and he started to spit blood.

He was starting to feel numb and heard Gaara cry out his name again before he passed out.

"Hey, stop it." A voice said which made Deidara wake up. The voice was different from the others – it wasn't happy or proud. The one speaking sounded bothered and, if possible, a little worried. Deidara knew that the voice was familiar, but he couldn't think of a face that matched the voice. His mind was too blurred, just like his vision. He felt a kick on his leg. It hurt, but he couldn't even scream or cry out in pain. He couldn't even move. How long had they been there?

"It's enough. Stop it." The same voice said again.

Deidara tried to look up and see who the person was – not recalling the voice bothered him. But when he looked up he didn't see anything but just some blurred faces and the dark heaven. Then his hearing seemed to disappear and he thought he saw someone crouching down beside him. Was it Gaara? He tried to search for him, but then suddenly felt very dizzy. He made an attempt to call for him and opened his mouth. He didn't know if he succeeded in saying something. Then everything went black again.

-xxx-

Deidara slowly opened his eyes and the first thing he saw was a white ceiling. His lips were dry and when he swallowed he tasted blood. His whole body was hurting, his arms and legs, ribs, his back, his head – everything. He wondered for how long he had been unconscious. He realized that he was lying in a bed and could, to 99.9% tell that he was safe and should not worry – even though the bed was unfamiliar. He turned his head and saw somebody sitting there, beside his bed. He couldn't tell who the person was at first, since he wasn't looking at Deidara but at his cell phone, typing something. He had a white cap on, without a bill, that almost covered his eyes and because of that the blonde couldn't recognize him. Beside, his vision was still blurred, from having his eyes closed for so long, and that didn't make things easier. He tried to speak but his throat was too dry. Instead, he tried to chuckle. It was weak and it hurt, but it was enough to get the sitting person's attention. The person looked up and Deidara thought, that he was dreaming. He must be.

"Stop looking at me like that." Sasori said, since Deidara's opened mouth and widened eyes bothered him.

Deidara tried to speak again. "W-where..." Was as far as he got.

"In the school nurse's room." Sasori responded. "How are you?

The question was nice, the tone wasn't though. Deidara didn't even try to answer that. Responding 'good' would just be ridiculous. The question was obvious and the least thing the blonde needed right now was to verbally remind himself of how shitty he was feeling. Instead he just wondered why the heck Sasori was there. Then he wondered why he himself was there, when he for a second forgot what had happened. He remembered some masked boys.

Were they robbing him? He didn't remember. But then, his heart almost stopped beating when he did remember, that he hadn't been alone.

"Gaara..." he said in a whisper, being totally shocked.

"What?"

"Gaara." Deidara repeated in panic. He flew of the bed, ignoring his hurting body and ignoring the feeling of wanting to vomit. But his body was too weak and it hurt too much so he just fell. He didn't fall to the floor though, since Sasori was fast enough, and strong enough, to grab him and prevent him from falling down. He pressed the blonde back to a sitting position on the bed and placed his hands on Deidara's shoulders to stop him from leaving.

Deidara knew Sasori was saying something, but he had too many terrible fantasizes rushing though his mind to listen. "Gaara was there!" He screamed, his voice shaking and cracking. "Where is he? He was there!"

He tried to push Sasori away but failed, since in this state he wasn't even half as strong as the red head was. The room was spinning and he could swear that he would faint at any second. "Where's Gaara?" He screamed again when realizing that it was useless trying to push Sasori away. "He was there with me! Where is he?!"

"Calm down!" Sasori screamed, loud enough to finally make Deidara shut up.

The blonde's body was shaking, his eyes all red and his face having a frightened expression. His eyelids were heavy and he had to focus to not let them close. "He was there with me..." He said in a whisper, looking at Sasori as if he just waited for him to say something horrible.

"I know he was." Sasori said, his hands still holding Deidara's shoulders to keep him in his sitting position, and also to help him sit straight up – since the blonde didn't have good balance right now. "He's fine, so calm down. He's not even here, they sent him back to his own room after examining him. He's fine."

Deidara still looked terrified, his hands shaking. He had heard what Sasori had said but his head wasn't clear enough for him to understand the meaning of it. He realized that he was holding his breath and dared to slowly exhale. "He's fine..." He repeated over and over again. "He's fine..."

"Yes, he's fine, so calm down." Sasori answered and slowly let go of Deidara's shoulders. Deidara nodded fast, not even knowing what he was agreeing to. He was slowly starting to realize what was happening – Gaara was fine.

That was the only thing he cared about right now. When finally realizing this, for real, all emotions came. The frighten, the relief, the sadness, the happiness – everything. He didn't know if he wanted to cry or laugh. His eyes started to water even more and the lump in his throat got even heavier. He looked Sasori in the eyes and the red head saw the desperation of comfort the younger one needed.

Deidara slowly raised his shaken arms. He hesitated for a second, searching for anger or hate in the other's eyes – like he usually saw when Sasori was looking at him. But no, Sasori just looked confused and a little awkward when realizing what Deidara wanted to do. The blonde carefully warped his arms around Sasori's neck, hugging him weakly. Sasori didn't move and he didn't say anything either. But Deidara wasn't consciously enough to care or to wonder what Sasori was thinking. His mind was blank, he was sweating and shaking and felt like he was on his edge of collapsing. He needed comfort; not caring from where and he dared to hug the red head a little tighter as the tears started to fall. Sasori didn't hug him back, but instead just let Deidara receive that comfort and protection, he so desperately needed right now.

In other words, he just stayed still and let Deidara hug him as long as he wanted.


	7. Chapter 6

SasoDei 'Konoha Boarding School'

Chapter 6.

The nurse, a young and pretty lady, came to give Deidara some more tablets and a glass of water. The blonde's left wrist was sprained and hurt like hell, but other than that he wasn't seriously hurt. His forehead and cheeks had cuts from the asphalt that were still bleeding and his legs hurt but he could still walk. Not properly and not fast – but he could still walk. His whole body was sore. His hand was wrapped in bandage and so was his forehead; looking like a headband. The nurse had already cleaned up the blood from his upper lip and chin. He's clothes were dirty and his shirt had some of his own blood on it.

Deidara could guess by himself that what they had done to him was probably just to scare him and not to seriously injure him. Realizing that didn't cheer him up though. He told the nurse that he fell down from the stairs in the boys' dorms and when she didn't looked totally convinced Sasori was the witness. Before leaving the nurse told them that it was getting late and asked Sasori to stay with him just a little more so Deidara wouldn't feel alone.

Sasori wasn't in the mood for complaining so, even though he really didn't like it, he promised to stay, without protesting.

When the nurse left the room became completely quiet, with Deidara sitting on the bed and Sasori sitting on a chair beside it.

"Thanks." Deidara suddenly said, as he sobbed for one last time and rubbed his eyes. His hands were still shaking, but he had already calmed down by now, even though he still didn't know exactly what had happened. But he thought that he already knew what he needed to know; Gaara was fine and he himself was safely in the school nurse's room.

"If you tell anyone I'll kill you." Sasori answered back. It was a weird, since he didn't use his usual voice when saying something mean. It sounded more like he said it as a reflex.

Deidara laughed a little, when thinking about how ironic all this was. "No one will believe me anyway."

They stayed silent again, which wasn't very weird since they really didn't have anything to talk about. It was just getting more and more awkward for every second that passed. Especially when they started to think about what happened just some minutes ago. Then, Deidara realized that he still didn't have an explanation to why the red head was there in the first place. "What are you doing here?" He asked and looked at him.

"I found you." Sasori simply replied, looking at his hands. "And your friend."

Deidara nodded, since he couldn't think about something more to say. He had already thanked him and he already knew what Sasori was doing there. There wasn't much more to say. But then a thought crossed the blonde's mind. A terrifying thought. He looked at Sasori and tried to figure out the answer by himself. It didn't take a genius to put the jigsaw pieces into place. "Were you there?" He suddenly asked.

The question surprised Sasori even thought he knew he should be prepared for it. He looked up. When he didn't answer, Deidara continued talking. "They were your friends, right?" He kept looking Sasori in the eyes when speaking.

"Were you there?" He asked again.

Sasori took his time to answer, also looking Deidara in the eyes all the time. "You think I was?" He didn't sound offended or worried. He talked as if they were talking about something ordinary – what they would eat for lunch or what time their lesson would start.

"I don't know. That's why I'm asking."

"Why would I like to beat you up?"

"I don't think you did."

"Then why are you–"

"But that doesn't mean that you really wouldn't." Deidara said and interrupted the older. "Everyone else, my friends for example, is going to have you in mind as soon as they find out. And they kind of have a reason."

"I wouldn't be here if I was the one who hit you."

Deidara wondered why Sasori didn't lose his patience, like he always did, and said something to make the blonde shut up. His expression was unreadable too. "There were like ten guys there but only three or four of them were hitting me." He continued. "I don't think you're one of those three or four guys, but I'm not sure about the other six, seven guys."

They kept staring at each other while a tense atmosphere was being spread in the room. Deidara didn't fear Sasori at all – rather the opposite.

"No." He finally said, dryly.

The blonde didn't believe him, Sasori clearly saw that. Deidara still looked at him, with judging eyes, as if he was trying to find some sign that told him Sasori was lying. But he didn't found it. The red head was either a good liar or he really was telling the truth. Deidara wasn't sure.

"I don't trust you." Deidara said honestly, without trying to offend or insult the other. "But I will believe you in this." Sasori didn't answer, but just silently let Deidara continue talking. "But if you're lying I'll never forgive you." Sasori still didn't say anything. He didn't even nod or anything. He just stared at Deidara; looking like he was thinking about something very deeply. "I'm sorry if I offended you."

When realizing that Deidara was done talking, Sasori got up from his seat. "I've got some things to do." He said before leaving – not turning to look at the blonde or waiting for to reply. Deidara followed him with his eyes all the time, till Sasori got out of the door and was completely out of sight and broke the promise he had made to the nurse.

-xxx-

It was late, past midnight, and Deidara couldn't sleep. He was tired but he didn't dare to close his eyes. It was too quiet and Deidara was the only one there. The blonde had never been afraid of the dark before, but now he was terrified. He imagined that someone was there, hiding, and waiting for him to fall asleep. His heart started to beat faster in fear and he started to sweat. If someone really was there he was totally helpless; he was hurt and alone and he didn't even have his cell phone there. His chest started to hurt when thinking about it and he had troubles breathing.

Then he tried to tell himself over and over again that of course no one was there, it was just his imagination. That didn't help at all. He was still scared, to the point where he couldn't take it anymore and cried. He didn't sleep at all that night, but just waited for the sun to go up; shaking, crying and praying. He felt like a baby, defenseless and small.

It wasn't till the sun got up that he could finally breathe out in relief. The nurse came to give him some more tablets for the pain and asked politely questions, if he was feeling better and if he slept well. Deidara smiled and told her, that yes, he was feeling better and yes, he slept well. She didn't take notice of the blonde's red eyes and bags under them since she was too busy.

Just before the nurse left, they heard steps outside in the corridor. Normally you never heard when people were walking through the corridors since the walls were pretty thick, but this person was running will all his might. The running person was Gaara, and he almost slammed the door open. He stopped in the doorway to get his breath back, with one hand over his fast pumping heart.

"Please don't run here." The nurse said to him when he passed her and walked over to the bed Deidara was lying in and landed on the chair that was still standing there beside the bed. Gaara didn't even turn to look at her and he didn't answer, even though he had heard her. She frowned a little at his rudeness, before leaving.

"I'm so sorry for not being here yesterday." Was the first thing he said. "I'm so sorry. How are you?"

"Don't be silly." Deidara said and smiled a little. "And I'm fine. _At least better than yesterday._"

"I wanted to be here but the nurse told me to go back to my dorm because it was so late and you needed to rest. I said I wanted to stay here but she was nagging and all. I'm sorry."

Deidara stretched his right arm, the only arm he could use right now, to hit his red head friend lightly on the head, to tell him that it was stupid of him to apologize.

"Did you sleep anything at all?" Gaara suddenly asked, when seeing Deidara's zombie-look that was not because of what happened yesterday.

Deidara nodded. "But only a little." He added when he saw that Gaara didn't believe him. "But it's fine."

"It really doesn't matter, at least you're okay." The red haired friend said.

Deidara was about to say the same thing when he remembered that terrifying feeling he got yesterday when he first woke up. Just the thought of it made him shiver. "Shit, you scared the heck out of me." He said and grabbed Gaara's hand. His hand was very cold, so Deidara grabbed it hard to make it warm. Gaara didn't understand what he was talking about.

"Oh, God." He sighed when thinking about it. "It was horrible, I thought you were dead or something". He raised his head and looked at the red head who was totally unharmed. "But they didn't touch you." He said to himself in a hesitant voice; he found it hard to believe. "Did they do anything to you?"

Gaara shook his head. "They were just holding me," He pulled his hand away from Deidara's and rolled up his sleeves to show Deidara, his bruised wrists. "Really hard. But no, they didn't hit me."

Deidara was glad that they didn't hurt Gaara, but he couldn't exactly cheer since he got even more scared for his own sake. Their target had been only Deidara.

"It was Uchiha Madara." Gaara suddenly said. "And Uzumaki Nagato and their fucking lapdogs."

Gaara didn't have to say that – Deidara was smart enough to figure that out himself. But what he didn't know was how Sasori got in the picture.

"How did we get here?"

"Sasori saw us. When they left you fainted. I tried to help you up and suddenly he was just passing by and helped me."

Deidara just nodded and tried to imagine what that would look like. He had a feeling that Gaara and Sasori couldn't stand each other.

"What a coincidence, huh?" Gaara said, and chuckled sarcastically.

"He said he wasn't there."

"Of course he would say that he wasn't there. Why would he have told you the truth?"

"Why would he have helped us?" The red head couldn't argue back to that. But that didn't mean that he believed it.

"I'm not going to call the police." Deidara said, knowing that Gaara would eventually bring it up.

Gaara raised his eyebrows. He told himself that he had misheard what his blonde friend had said. "What?"

"I won't call the police. And you won't either."

The younger frowned, not understanding at all what Deidara was saying. Was he out of his mind?

"I don't want people to know what happened."

"They almost killed you!"

"No, they didn't."

"Yes, they–"

Deidara hurried to place his fingers over the younger guy's lips to stop him from talking. "Just listen." He said. Gaara looked both angry and disappointed, which he also was, but nodded and stayed quiet.

"It will only make things worse. They didn't want to hurt me, but just scare me. Now, they'll leave me alone. I don't want to involve more people and most of all; I don't want my family to know." Gaara didn't look convinced at all. He shook his head, to show that Deidara's arguments weren't enough.

"Please." Deidara said. "Don't tell anyone. They'll send me back home. You of all people know how hard I've worked to be able to be here. If my family finds out they won't care about anything and just make sure that I return to Iwagakure." Gaara was still not convinced, but his expression softened a little. "What am I supposed to do in Iwagakure? You know why I'm here."

The red head was still not agreeing but he gave in. He nodded slowly, still hesitating.

"Promise me."

He kept nodding and bit his bottom lip to prevent him from taking back what he just promised. Deidara grabbed his hand again, the same hand he was previously holding. It wasn't so cold anymore.

Deidara asked Gaara to lend him his phone. Luckily for him, the blonde was good in remembering numbers and a couple of tries and guesses he managed to call Itachi.

"Deidara?!" Itachi almost screamed, before Deidara could even say 'hello' and he had to pull the phone away from his ear to protect it.

"How did you know?"

"Do you know how worried I've been? I've called you like a million times, till I saw that your phone was lying here. Why didn't you bring it with you? You could have borrowed someone's phone and at least have texted me. Where are you? Why didn't you bring your damn _phone_?!"

Deidara got speechless. Both because he had never heard Itachi being so worried and angry before and, because he didn't expect to hear that this early in the morning. He heard Itachi take a breath, probably to keep screaming.

"I'm in the nurse's room." He said fast, before Itachi could say something more. The brunette got silent, probably since he didn't expect Deidara to say something like that. "I fell down from the stairs. I'm sorry I didn't call you."

"W-what? How are you?" Itachi's voice immediately changed and he didn't sound angry at all anymore. "When did it happen?"

"Yesterday. When–" Deidara noticed, that Gaara wasn't looking at him, but at another direction. The red head didn't like it when Deidara lied. "–Gaara and I were returning from our walk. But I'm fine. I'm sorry I made you worry about me."

"I'll be there in a minute." Itachi hung up before Deidara could say something more and the blonde could imagine how Itachi was running, just as Gaara was, to get there.

Itachi didn't come alone, Naruto was also there. The blonde brought some snacks with him and told Deidara to get well soon. The younger, short boy brought some snacks with him and told Deidara to get well soon. The blonde got surprised since he didn't know Naruto very well but he almost pinched the younger's cheek for being so cute. When Naruto asked what had happened and Deidara told him about the stairs he looked suspiciously at him. But he didn't say anything about it and just nodded. He and Gaara stayed there only some minutes more, before they left since neither of them had eaten breakfast yet. They promised to return as soon as possible.

When both males left, Itachi walked over to sit on the edge of Deidara's bed. He silently inspected the blonde carefully before sighing. "You didn't fall down from the stairs, did you?" He asked.

Deidara cleared his throat. "Yes, I did."

"I'm not stupid, Deidara."

He looked Deidara straight in the eyes. "It was them, right? Sasori and–"

"No. I talked to him." The blonde interrupted him with.

"When?"

"Yesterday. He was the one that found me and Gaara."

"What did he tell you?"

"He wasn't there."

"And you believed him?"

"Yes."

Itachi sighed again, only this time angrier. He drew his hand through his long, black hair. "Are you thinking with your head?" He almost screamed, this time sounding more upset then worried. "How can you be so naive?"

"I'm not naive."

"How can you even try to defend him? Are you aware of what happened to you?!"

"Please, I don't want to talk about it. They already succeeded in what they wanted. They wanted to scare me and I am. I am scared to death. So please, just leave it." Itachi went silent. He closed his eyes to calm himself down and nodded.

"I know you're not saying this because you want to bother me." Deidara said. "I know you care and all, but I really don't want to talk about it right now."

"I know. I'm sorry." Itachi raised himself to put a supporting hand on Deidara's shoulder. He sighed, for the third time. "Is there anything I can do for you?"

Deidara smiled a little, as a though crossed his mind; something Itachi had told him the first day he arrived, when Deidara had no idea what kind of people Sasori and his friends were. "That blanket and hot chocolate would be perfect now." He said.

Itachi didn't understand the meaning of it till he also remembered the first day. He chuckled silently.

-xxx-

Deidara didn't go to class and stayed in his room for a whole week. The reason for why he stayed home wasn't that he was feeling bad physically. The reason was because Deidara couldn't sleep. The nurse asked him to stay there yet another night but the blonde refused. The night had traumatized him and he never, ever wanted to go back there.

All he wanted was to just return to his room. At least there he wasn't alone.

That didn't help though. Deidara still had troubles sleeping and when he finally managed to fall asleep he woke up three hours later – sweating, breathing fast and being on the edge of crying. They were haunting him in his dreams, masked boys, hurting him, till Deidara woke up. After that he didn't dare to sleep again and ended up with yet another sleepless night.

That's how the days passed. In daylight everything went fine; his friends came to visit him and brought him food while Itachi helped him studying to catch up with the class. The nights, on the other hand, were terrible. Some nights he slept for two hours, other nights for three and if he was very lucky he slept for four hours. But no matter how many hours he slept, he always ended up waking up because of a nightmare. Some nights he cried, some nights he didn't. But he never woke Itachi up because he didn't want to bother him and every time Itachi asked how he had slept he always answered "Fine, and you?". He never explained why he suddenly was so tired all the time, why his eyes were red when he woke up and why he had dark circles under his eyes.

Deidara decided to return a Thursday. He had succeeded in sleeping four hours and decided that it was enough – he couldn't stay in his room forever. He and Itachi did like they always did; ate breakfast in their room before getting ready and walk over to the main building.

Their first class was Japanese, with the teacher Deidara first met when he arrived, the one who gave Itachi permission to leave the classroom and help the new student. He was nice and Deidara liked him. "I heard about your accident." The man said, when he saw Deidara entering the classroom and the blonde could hear curious people whispering 'what accident?'.

"Get well soon." Deidara nodded, bowed and thanked him before walking over to his seat.

When all students arrived and were about to open their books the teacher stopped them and said that he had something to tell them. "Before we start today's lesson I have something to tell you". Some students raised one eyebrow while others did what Deidara and Itachi did; look at each other with a questioning look and shrug their shoulders. No one understood what their teacher was talking about.

"We'll go on a trip tomorrow," Their teacher continued. "To the forest where we will study trees."

"What?" Some students in unison.

"You heard me."

The students started to moan and complain, some silently cursing their teacher for being so spontaneous. The teacher ignored it completely and continued talking.

"We'll travel by bus. You'll sleep in a tent and–"

"WHAT?!" This time the whole class, except for Deidara, said.

"Yes. You guys take everything for granted." The blonde couldn't agree more. "A nice bed, a bathtub – no. You'll sleep in a tent for three nights. It's time for you to learn a real lesson."

"By staring at trees and sleeping in a fucking tent?!" A guy from the back row asked.

"_Exactly_." The teacher answered, with the same sarcasm as the student asking used. "Now, we'll go through this papers together." He held up a bunch of papers, that were previously lying on his desk in front of him, so everyone could see it. "Here are all instructions; rules, information about the assignment, what you must bring and so on." He distributed four papers to each student and they started to complain again; one after another.

"So you really are serious? For real?" A guy, sitting behind Sasori, said when the teacher left his papers on his desk.

"We'll sleep in a tent?" Another one added.

"I am very serious." The teacher casually responded.

"Is it really a good idea?" A third one asked. "We're from Konoha, you know."

"Yeah, does the principal even know about this?"

"Don't you think –"

The last student didn't have time to finish her sentence before the teacher interrupted them. He was starting to get irritated. "I don't care if you're from Konoha or not." He said honestly. "And yes, she knows. You'll leave tomorrow, Friday, and return next week's Monday."

The class didn't stop complaining for that but instead started to complain even more and louder since they realized, that they couldn't escape from this at all.

"Let him do it." Sasori suddenly said – he didn't have to scream to make the whole class hear him – and pointed at Deidara with his head, since the effort of doing it with his hand wasn't worth it. "He's probably used to it."

The class started to laugh and Deidara didn't even mind to care or even sigh. He had learned by now how to become immune against the red head's comments.

"Enough!" Their teacher screamed – losing the small amount of patience that he had left. He turned to glare at Sasori.

"How old are you, Sasori?" He asked.

Sasori didn't answer, since the teacher already knew how old he was. He was just making fun of him and Sasori did not like it.

"Answer me." The teacher demanded.

"Seventeen." Sasori answered with a glare.

This time Deidara was the one that wanted to laugh. The whole class was tensely following everything that was going on; teacher versus Sasori. Deidara, on the other hand, had to bite his bottom lip to not laugh out loud.

"Then act like it." The man finished with.

The blonde was the only one finding this hilarious. Not even Itachi laughed but just looked at him in a bothered way and tried to tell him to stop it, without using words. The red head didn't fail to notice that Deidara was quietly laughing at him. So when the teacher turned around Sasori ripped of a part of his paper and crumpled it up. Then he threw it at Deidara's direction and it hit his head. He succeeded in getting the blonde's attention and when Deidara turned around to see where that piece of paper came from, Sasori clearly mouthed "Fuck you".

Deidara didn't stop for that, quiet the reverse – he found if even more amusing. He smirked at him which made Sasori even angrier, before casually turning around – completely enjoying this moment.

When distributing all papers their teacher walked over to his on his desk. He adjusted his glasses before speaking. "Since I know it can be very noisy on the bus," He looked at the corner where Sasori and his friends were sitting.

"I've decided who you will sit with. The person sitting beside you will also be the person you'll share a tent with. Look at the second paper, there's the list of who you'll be paired up with."

After some seconds they whole class burst out laughing. Everyone except from Sasori and Deidara, since they knew everyone was laughing at them. They both looked exactly the same; terrified. Itachi wasn't laughing either, since he was feeling so, so sorry for his friend.

There, on the list, was 'Iwa Deidara – Akasuna Sasori' clearly written.

"No way..." Sasori whispered, his eyes being huge and he was reading that sentence over and over again. He did not want to believe it. Obito, sitting beside him, had already started to shed tears from laughing so hard. He couldn't even breathe and tried to cover his mouth to muffle his laughter, but failed.

Deidara looked pleadingly at Itachi, begging for mercy. But the brunette couldn't give him that, so instead he just put a cheerfully hand on his friend's shoulder.

"Oh God..." Deidara whispered. This was nothing he was looking forward to.


	8. Chapter 7

SasoDei 'Konoha Boarding School'

Chapter 7.

Of course, the bus wasn't a usual bus. It was from Konoha Boarding School, after all. The bus they would take was huge, clean and had incredible comfortable seats. Deidara was the only one who got impressed and got totally excited of just the thought of being in that bus. The other students were still complaining.

Itachi didn't like this tent idea either. He had never slept in a tent before and he had no interest in doing so either. But he didn't complain since he was Deidara's friend.

Earlier, when they had told Gaara and Naruto what their class would be doing this weekend Naruto gasped – the thought of sleeping in a tent was, terrifying, to him – and Gaara just laughed.

Itachi and Deidara went through the checklist together: pajamas, toothbrush, pocket money, snacks to eat on the bus and clothes, since their teacher had been kind enough to allow them to use their ordinary clothes instead of their uniform.

**Day one**

Deidara got the seat beside the window, since Sasori apparently didn't like that seat, but Deidara didn't complain. They didn't say a word to each other during the whole trip. Sasori was talking to the persons sitting behind them, in front of them and even far away. He wasn't sitting properly and when the teacher told them to calm down they did, for like five minutes, till everything started again. Deidara got a headache, not only because they were so noisy but also because he barely slept the night before. He felt like a living dead, staring emptily at the floor in front of him without thinking about anything at all. Even Sasori noticed that something was wrong with him.

Now and then he glanced over at him, without the blonde noticing. Of course, Sasori didn't say anything about it and he didn't ask what was wrong. Instead he kept talking and laughing with the other students.

Two hours passed quickly to Sasori. Two hours felt like two thousand years to Deidara. After two hours the students got tired and calmed down for real and Sasori was finally sitting properly on his seat. Deidara turned his face to look outside the window and made it just in time to see the sunset. He rested his head against the window and gave his mind some rest. The sky, painted in blue, red and purple was beautiful and even though he was tired and wasn't feeling very well, he smiled. He let his mind go back to his village, Iwagakure, when his father woke him up early in the morning to see the sunrise and let him stay up till late to see the sunset, over the sea. Deidara's love for the sea and the sun was something he got from his father.

He woke up from his nostalgia when something landed on his right shoulder and lap, and he felt a smell of perfume, that didn't belong to him. When he turned his head he met with red hair that tickled his face and neck. He realized that Sasori was lying with his head on his shoulder and his hand resting over Deidara's lap. He must be sleeping since he would never, ever be consciously this close to the blonde. Deidara awkwardly turned his head to see if someone was watching them, but the people sitting opposite them were also sleeping. Then he glanced at Sasori's head again and wasn't sure if he should wake the older up or not. But the blonde got a feeling that Sasori would hate him even more if he woke him up, both because he probably wanted to sleep and also because he would get embarrassed. So Deidara turned too looked outside the window again and tried his hardest to not think about that soft hand and that magical scent. He had a hard time concentrating.

They arrived safely when the bus stopped in an unknown place, beside a huge forest. The students started to complain again when the bus driver helped them to get their bags out and their teacher told them that they would walk to where they would set up their tents. He told them to go with the person they had been paired up with and together carry their own bags, the tent and their sleeping bags.

Because Deidara's wrist was still wrapped in bandage, Sasori had to carry the tent and bags by himself. He gave Deidara his death glare and the blonde tried his hardest not to smirk.

When walking for almost fifteen minutes they finally arrived to a glade. The students were tired, as if they had been working for a whole day, and kept complaining. The teacher just sighed, slightly starting to regret having brought this class with him. The sun was still on its way down and they had to hurry to set up the tent, since it would be almost impossible setting it up when it would be dark. Setting up the tent was the only task their teacher gave them for today.

Deidara carefully pulled everything out, the tools for the tent, with one hand to not hurt his wrist even more.

Sasori had made himself comfortable on the ground, his back against a tree, and watched him. When noticing that, the red head didn't have any plans of wanting to cooperate Deidara turned to look at him and raised his eyebrows. He didn't have to say anything, since Sasori understood what his look meant.

"I'm so not doing this." He simply said.

"Am I supposed to do this alone?" Sasori didn't answer, but just looked arrogantly at him. "With my hand?"

Deidara added and held up his hurt wrist so Sasori could see it.

Sasori raised himself, but Deidara doubted that it was to help him. And just as the blonde predicted Sasori just walked passed him and said "I don't care. Do it yourself." Before walking away, over to where his friends were sitting. This time, Deidara was the one glaring at him.

Sasori and his friends left, not caring about the tent at all. Deidara still tried to do it, but couldn't do very much with only one hand. Things fell down, blew away and when he tried with both his hands it hurt too much. He sighed.

"Where's Akasuna?" Someone behind him suddenly asked.

He didn't have to turn around to know who it was, but he did it anyway to be polite. "He left." Deidara answered honestly.

Their teacher sighed, just like the blonde had done previously, before crouching down to help his student.

"That boy is hopeless." He mumbled, and Deidara didn't know if he said it to him or to himself. Either way, Deidara couldn't agree more.

The teacher sure liked to talk so while setting up the tent they chatted about a little of everything. He asked Deidara about Iwagakure and his family, Deidara was not mentioning his father at all, and he told him about his secret love for nature, especially trees and art. He was a little weird, not about art, but trees, like – how the heck can you find trees interesting? – but Deidara liked him even more. When being almost done the man suddenly went silent and the blonde recognized that moment.

Deidara was also good in talking and every time he suddenly stopped it was, because he wanted to bring up a serious or/and important subject.

"…Deidara," The teacher suddenly said, when Deidara was sitting down on the ground and taking out his sleeping bag. "Is it just me or do you and Akasuna don't get along very well?"

The question was the most comical thing Deidara had ever heard. "We don't know each other." He answered.

"I understand he hangs out with the wrong people."

Deidara shrugged his shoulders, not really understanding the point his teacher had by asking him this kinds of questions. Did Itachi have anything to do with this?

"To be honest, I talked to Itachi." _Oh, you don't say._ "He said they randomly say mean things to you". The teacher was obviously waiting for Deidara to reply, since he made a pause for him to talk. But the blonde didn't answer, since he didn't know if he would regret it later. So he stayed quiet and their teacher took that as a 'yes, they do'. "Do they hurt you _physically_?"

Except from Sasori burning his thighs with tea? Except from them pushing Deidara in the corridors, sometimes so hard that Deidara got bruises? Except from beating him up a Friday night? "No." Deidara answered. "They don't."

The teacher nodded, not noticing anything weird or suspicious about the blonde's answer. "Do you want me to help you talk about this with the principal?"

Deidara didn't think twice and was quick with shaking his head. "It's not that bad."

The older man looked at him with worried eyes, but didn't try to convince Deidara since he thought Deidara was old enough to make his own decisions.

The tent was finished and the teacher looked at it with a satisfied smile, his hands on his waist. The tent was blue and small – was it only for one person? – and Deidara couldn't even imagine the look on Sasori's face when he would see this.

"Thank you." Deidara said politely, still sitting on the ground. The teacher nodded and raised his hand, instead of saying that it was okay.

The blonde was standing in front of the tent and the teacher behind it, so the man walked over to him and Deidara got the feeling that he still was thinking about this Sasori-thing. "Akasuna Sasori isn't a bad person." He suddenly said.

"Actually, he was a very good student his first years here." Deidara raised his eyebrows and looked up at his teacher. Were they talking about the same person? "I think the others are the ones to blame. Sasori is just an immature boy that tries to fit in."

Honestly, Deidara had always had that thought in the back of his mind. When he first saw Sasori, he thought, that there was something cute and almost angelic in him. He had a hard time seeing it now though.

"Tell me if anything gets wrong." Was the last thing their teacher said and he waited for Deidara to nod before walking over to some other students.

Deidara made the tent ready inside. He placed the sleeping bags and pulled his own and Sasori's bag inside. He got outside only to make sure he hadn't forgotten anything and before he returned inside he saw Sasori walking towards him.

"Is this a tent?!" He asked, his eyes being huge, when seeing the size of it.

"No." Donghae replied with a very serious tone. "It's an UFO. It just landed here some seconds ago."

Sasori didn't find Deidara's joke funny at all and decided to just ignore it, since he wasn't in the mood to even glare at him. He crouched down to open the tent and looked inside.

"I'm still waiting for a 'thank you'." Deidara said, considering the fact, that Sasori hadn't helped with anything at all.

"Keep waiting, idiot." Was the respond, half of Sasori's body being inside the tent. "Ah, seriously..." He muttered to himself. He took out his head and looked at Deidara, almost pleadingly and the blonde just shrug his shoulders. He understood his pain.

They spent their next hours sitting as far away as possible from each other – Deidara reading a book with the help of a torch and Sasori drinking strawberry milk with a small straw from a small, pink box.

_Strawberry milk._ No matter how cool he acted, he had always loved it. And the question _is_, who doesn't?

-xxx-

"Move!"

"How can I possibly move anymore?"

"I don't care. Just move. You're too close."

"Are you deaf?! Move yourself!"

It was late, past 11pm, and their teacher had told them to go and sleep one hour ago. Sasori and Deidara were the only ones making any sounds, whispering and hissing to each other.

Sasori sat up and sighed heavily, loudly and irritatingly. Deidara closed his eyes and just pretended, that Sasori wasn't there. But after a while curiously took over and the blonde, as he opened one eye to look at what Sasori was doing.

He was drinking yet another strawberry milk and reading Deidara's book.

"Is that all you brought with yourself?" Deidara asked and opened both his eyes. Sasori didn't answer. "Are you hungry?" _Still no answer_. The blonde sat up and opened his handbag where he still had some snacks left, cookies and chips. He placed it in front of the red head and Sasori looked at him in surprise before looking suspiciously at the things inside in bag.

"I haven't poisoned them or anything." Sasori chuckled.

Deidara was tired and to his surprise he easily fell asleep. The last thing he saw was Sasori still reading his book, before everything went black.

_Soon he wasn't in his tent anymore but outside his house, in Iwagakure. And he wasn't there with Sasori but alone. It was dark and all he could see was a brown door, the opening to his small house. _

_People were screaming inside and he froze when he recognized the voices. It was them – his mother and his brother, screaming in pain. Deidara couldn't move. He tried to walk, but his feet were like glued to the ground. Move! Was the only thing he could think. MOVE! He could hear his mother scream louder, screaming for help and calling for her older son – Deidara's brother. MOVE, DAMMIT! She screamed louder, this time calling for Deidara and asking him why he didn't help them. Why he was just standing there and not doing anything._

"Hey!"

That was the sixth time calling and Deidara finally opened his eyes wide. He sat up, eyes watering and breathing heavily – sweating as if he had been running a marathon. He saw someone's silhouette and he panicked. But the other person had fast reflexes and was fast enough to muffle Deidara's scream with his hand. "It's just me." He whispered.

Who? Gaara? Itachi? Naruto?

Deidara looked at the person, terrified, since it was too dark for him to see the other's face.

"It's just me. Calm down." The other whispered again.

The blonde nodded, slowly calming down and remembering where he was and with who. Sasori slowly removed his hand from his mouth.

"Y-you scared me..." Deidara breathed out, his voice shaking but not because he was scared but because he was on the edge of crying. "D-don't do that again..."

He exhaled, pulled up his knees and hugged them; burying his face and biting his bottom lip, trying with all his might to hold back the tears. His heart was starting to calm down.

"Are you crying?" Sasori suddenly asked.

Deidara shook his head, not caring if Sasori saw it or not.

After a while he dared to look up again, without having to worry about crying. He sighed and dried his sweat in his forehead and neck with his uninjured hand. "I-I need to take some fresh air." He said, mostly to himself than to the red head before opening the tent and crawled out.

Sasori and Deidara were not the only ones being awake, because Sasori received a text message only seconds after the blonde left the tent. The message was from his friend: _He left the tent, right? Let's go and have some fun._

Deidara was sitting on a stump, his hands covering his face and didn't notice the three same aged boys watching him from behind.

"What's he doing?" Obito whispered. Sasori had an idea of what he was doing.

"We shouldn't do this." He said instead of answering, knowing that Deidara in all probability was still vulnerable because of his nightmare.

"Why not? It'll be fun." Hidan said. Sasori wasn't convinced at all and his friends didn't fail to notice.

"Come on, it's not like we will hurt him. We'll just scare him."

"He'll tell on us." Sasori said and pretended like that was the only thing that was stopping him.

"No, he won't." Obito said.

"Stop being such a fucking wimp, for Jashin's sake!" Hidan added, never forgetting to mention his god's name, even if it was nonsense.

Sasori turned his head and looked behind them, hoping with the bottom of his heart that anybody – preferably the teacher – would see them. But he didn't get surprised at all when no one came to his rescue – no wonder, it was almost 2am.

They sneaked up on the lonely boy – Deidara still not noticing anything. Obito had to cover his mouth with his hands to not laugh and Hidan grabbed a small stone and threw it at Donghae's direction. As soon as the small thing hit the blonde's back, Deidara immediately raised himself and looked behind him. He didn't see anyone there.

"I-I-Is someone there?" He asked.

Sasori wanted to hug him. He looked so lost and lonely, like a puppy without a home or anyone to protect it. He remembered their hug in the nurse's room, when the red head was the one who gave him the protection and comfort he needed at that moment. He felt like an asshole. _A total bastard_.

Hidan whispered something in Obito's ear and Obito smirked. Sasori got a bad feeling. Obito took a silent deep breath before screaming, using a high pitched voice while Hidan started to shake the bush they were hiding behind. _A scream_. And Deidara couldn't move. His heart felt like it stopped. But this wasn't a dream, the blonde knew that, so he did the only thing he could – he ran.

"H-he's running away!" Obito yelled, terrified. This was not in their plans. "What if he gets lost?!" The black haired boy didn't have time to finish the last part before Sasori already was on his way – running at the same direction and not caring about Obito and Hidan calling for him.

Deidara ran with all his might. The fact that he had no idea where he was and couldn't see anything didn't stop him.

What did stop him were the roots from the trees that he didn't see, and he tripped. He fell on his hurt hand and screamed and cried in pain, tears running down his eyes like waterfalls. His body started to shake from the pain.

He heard steps running towards him and had no idea if he should get relived or even more scared. Even when he saw, that it was Sasori he wasn't sure what to feel. It didn't matter anyway – the only thing he could feel right now was pain.

"It hurts..." He cried, when Sasori was helping him up. "Oh, God, it hurts..."

"I know, it is alright." Sasori said, even though he had no idea what was hurting. Then he noticed Deidara's right hand holding his left wrist in a loose grip, both his hands shaking, and he could imagine what had happened.

"I-It hurts..." Deidara repeated again. "It hurts..."

For every time he said that he cried even more and his knees started to shake, so Sasori had to hold him up.

"It's alright." The red head couldn't think of another thing to say. "We'll go back to the tent, okay?"

Deidara didn't reply that, but kept repeating himself; crying over and over again in a broken voice that it hurt, and Sasori wasn't sure if Deidara could hear what he was saying.

Sasori called Obito, one hand holding his phone and the other holding Deidara by his waist to help him walk, since he had hurt his ankle when falling and was limping. Obito helped him find the way back to where the tents were. Both of them were freezing since they were dressed only in their pajamas.

"Does it still hurt?" Sasori asked after some seconds of silence. They were sitting beside each other in the tent, Sasori looking at Deidara and Deidara having his eyes closed hard. He nodded, his hand still holding his wrist and rocking his body back and forth, as if that would alleviate the pain, crying silently.

Minutes passed and it was almost 3am when Deidara sobbed for the last time and laid down, inside his sleeping bag. His face was wet, his nose running and his eyes swollen. He didn't know who to thank a thousand times that it was too dark for Sasori to see him.

The red head had been saying random things all the time, every now and then, like commenting the weather and other unnecessary things. He was drinking yet another strawberry milk. Deidara could imagine that was his drug and that he drank that every time he was happy, upset, depressed and nervous. "_Better then cigarettes and alcohol I guess,"_ Deidara thought. Sasori wasn't really saying anything important or anything that made any sense, but the blonde had an idea of why he was acting like that.

"Are you starting to like me?" He interrupted and turned to face Sasori.

"What?"

"You have a bad conscience, don't you?"

To Deidara's surprise, the question didn't upset Sasori, but instead, he just answered honestly. "It was a stupid prank."

"Everything you've ever done to me since I arrived here has been stupid pranks. But now suddenly you care. That's why I'm asking, are you starting to like me?"

Sasori frowned, even though the blonde couldn't see it – which he thought was bad, since he would have liked if Deidara saw it.

"Don't get too confident, brat." He laid down too, as far away as possible from Deidara – just like before, his back facing the blonde's back.

Minutes of silence passed when Sasori suddenly said something that made Deidara widened his eyes in surprise and almost make his heart skip a beat.

"_I'm sorry,_" He said in a low voice, almost in a whisper. "About earlier."

Deidara smiled, happy with the knowledge that Sasori couldn't see it. "It's okay."


	9. Chapter 8

SasoDei 'Konoha Boarding School'

Chapter 8.

**Day** **two**

If Sasori would sleep forever then Deidara was sure, he would fall in love with him. When sleeping he was that angel, Deidara thought about the first time he saw him. He had never seen Sasori looking like that; eyes peacefully closed, his messy red hair resting over his forehead and his mouth slightly open. He looked years younger. The badass Sasori was nowhere to be found. He was a baby now.

A song Deidara couldn't recognize started playing. It was Sasori's phone, the alarm telling them that it was time to wake up. The blonde chuckled in his mind, finding it ironic that he had been up hours before the alarm would start.

After yesterday's incident Deidara couldn't fall asleep again. He had literally been lying in his sleeping bag, watching Sasori till the sunrise.

Sasori frowned, his eyes still being closed, annoyed by the sound that interrupted his sleep; like a little child does, when his mother tells him it's time for school. He moved a little, but still had his eyes closed, and Deidara had to bite his bottom lip to not smile at the unfamiliar cuteness. He looked somewhere else when he noticed, that Sasori started to open his eyes.

-xxx-

The sun was shining bright and the students comforted themselves with the knowledge that it would be a nice weather today too. The teacher gathered them together, 8am, to eat breakfast. Deidara didn't notice the glances he received from Sasori, Itachi, even Obito and Hidan. And he didn't notice the glare Itachi gave the three friends when realizing that something must have happened. Honestly, he was too tired to notice. And if he did, then he was too tired to care.

After breakfast they got 20 minutes to get ready before they would start their first task. Sasori and Deidara didn't say a word to each other during those minutes. Sasori got ready in ten minutes while the blonde had troubles getting dressed since his wrist still hurt. They still didn't say anything and Sasori left to hang out with his friends.

When Deidara was finished, he didn't see Sasori anywhere and calculated that he would be doing everything by himself – again. He liked it better that way though, so he didn't complain at all.

Almost all students had already left to explore the forest – even Itachi – and Deidara was probably the last student to leave. He carried all books and notes he needed before starting his incredibly interesting mission.

All trees looked the same. _Seriously_. Deidara didn't understand anything. 'This tree has leafs of this size which are bigger than this tree's leafs'. To Deidara all trees in this forest looked the same. And they had way too complicated names. He watched the photo in one of the books his teacher had given them and then looked the tree in front of him. He didn't get it.

He looked at the picture again. Then at the tree. He sighed. This was impossible. He decided that it wasn't even worth trying and put his book down to keep walking. He was holding way too many books with only one hand and it didn't surprise him, that he eventually dropped half of them. He crouched down to pick them up but didn't even have time to touch them before he suddenly saw a foot pressing his two books down. He looked up and saw a smirking Sasori, smiling devilishly at him. He screw his foot, only to emphasize what he was doing, before walking away with some laughing classmates after him. Deidara didn't even mind to glare. Instead, he picked up his books and tried to brush some of the dirt off. He didn't even mind to sigh.

When the blonde decided to completely give up, he saw his supposed team mate walk towards him. He was alone and Deidara even dared to think that he was on his way to help Deidara. And luckily he was, since he stopped beside the blonde, when Deidara pretended to be deeply concentrated in his tree studying.

"Thanks for your help." Deidara said, still looking at the tree; pretending that he was deeply concentrated in his work. "I mean, I wouldn't be able to do this if it wasn't for you."

"You're welcome."

The blonde turned to glare at him. He didn't want to provoke the other, but he couldn't help it. He was kind of getting tired of all this. How can a person be so complicated?

"Do you even realize how fake you are?" He asked, looking Sasori direct in the eyes.

The red head stared at him, at first not exactly understanding what the younger was saying to him. He was surprised, too surprised to get angry. Too surprised to even reply. His eyebrows slowly rose. Deidara gave him one last glare.

"Never mind." He said in a low voice, both to himself and to Sasori. He pressed three books against Sasori's chest, hard, and Sasori grabbed the books in reflex. "My wrist hurts." Was all the explanation he got before Deidara walked _away_.

The blonde wasn't sad. He was pissed off. He was blessed with something called 'patience', but he was human too and his patience wasn't totally persistent. He was walking with fast and angry steps, still glaring at whatever his eyes met. Then he saw their class sitting in a circle on the ground, with their teacher standing in the middle – talking to them – and he had to try to put his angry mood aside before approaching.

"Ah, Deidara!" The man said and beckoned him to come closer. "Where's Sasori?" Deidara shrugged his shoulders and something told the teacher that he shouldn't ask more about it. Their teacher started talking about how wonderful nature was. Most of the students were just yawning while others kept whispering to each other – not even minding to pretend, that they were listening. After almost half an hour he let the students continue with their work. During their teacher's speak, Sasori silently walked over to Obito and sat down beside him.

Itachi asked Deidara how everything was going and the blonde was about to answer that everything went fine, especially when Sasori wasn't there, when a voice made Deidara go quiet.

"Deidara."

The blonde froze. The voice calling him was familiar, however; the voice calling his name was unfamiliar. Sasori, the Akasuna Sasori, the bastard, the angelic asshole, had called him by his name for the first time. Neither "_you_", nor "_Brat_", nor "_idiot_", nor "_stupid_", but "_Deidara_".

Deidara's heart skipped a beat and his cheeks grew a bit red. How absurd. He cleared his throat before answering. "What?"

Sasori, not taking notice of anything, pointed at a tree in the book before pointing at the tree in front of him.

The blonde walked over, also looking inside the book.

"It's not the same." He said.

"Yes, it is."

"No."

Sasori didn't seem to care that Deidara was arguing with him. He just looked surprised, that Deidara wasn't agreeing. He carefully looked at the real tree and the picture. "Yes, it is." He said again.

"I'm telling you, it's not the same."

Deidara noticed too late that his tongue and mind had been taking a break and he had spoken with his cracking voice (which more seemed like a dialect) the thing, he had problem with.

Perfect. Especially when the whole class was nearby. Obito burst out laughing, together with the other students and Deidara glared at scary-eyed boy. He did like he always did, ignoring the laughs and comments, comments like "how can you talk like that?" and "how embarrassing!"

He looked at Sasori who was biting his bottom lip; trying to hide a smile. Not a smirk, but just a gentle and cute smile. He wasn't making fun of him and Deidara couldn't stop thinking, that Sasori's smile was... very weird. Very weird, but yet very charming. He took the book from the red head's hands and pretended that nothing happened, even though he was smiling in his heart and soul.

-xxx-

The sun was already making its way down and Deidara could call this a successful day. He was happy. He was sitting on the grass together with Itachi, eating noodles and enjoying the beautiful nature. They didn't even talk to each other, but just watched the sunset; exchanging satisfied sighs every now and then. When their eyes met they just smiled to each other, still not saying anything.

When time was getting near bedtime both Sasori and Deidara were reading books, since there really wasn't much more to do. They were, as always, sitting as far away as possible from each other. Neither of them liked the book they were reading but as said, there wasn't anything else to do. Suddenly Obito was standing outside their tent, calling for Sasori, in a low voice, to not being heard by the teacher. The teacher had given them the same rules here as in school: do not be outside after 10pm. And both Deidara and Sasori knew that it was far past 10pm.

Sasori put his book down and was about to open the tent when Deidara felt a stab in his stomach. Alone in a tiny tent in a dark forest. He acted on pure impulse and grabbed the red head's wrist.

"Don't leave." He _said_, his body and mouth acting faster than his brain. He had no idea why he did or said that.

"Uh, what?" Sasori asked, being just as surprised as Deidara was.

"I mean... You'll get in trouble."

Silence.

"Yeah, you're right." Deidara sighed. "I don't care if you get in trouble. In fact, I'll be pretty happy if you do get in trouble."

Sasori didn't have to be a genius to understand what Deidara wanted. He cursed himself for being such a softie and even having a second thought. He should just leave. He didn't care about the blonde. Honestly.

"If you're scared then just call your friend." He tried to fight against, that thing called conscience and leave, but Deidara was still holding him.

"No, don't!" He said and when Sasori turned to face him again he had to fight against a blush. "I can't wake him up. He was really tired. Just don't leave. It doesn't matter that it's you, I just don't want to be alone."

One thousand mean comments came to mind and Sasori tried to force out at least one of them. But instead he kept thinking about Deidara the previous night, when waking up in panic because of a nightmare.

"Do you often have nightmares?" He asked. Deidara let go of the red head's wrist, trusting that he wasn't going to leave, and shrugged his shoulders. He didn't want to answer honestly to that, but Sasori clearly saw what the real answer was.

"Because of what happened to you?"

The blonde shrugged his shoulders again. "Just stay." He said, before lying down. Sasori sighed soundlessly before nodding. He opened his handbag and took out his pink milk and cell phone.

For the first times in days, Deidara didn't wake up because of a nightmare. Instead he woke up, because of a sound.

Someone was walking outside his tent. He flew up in a sitting position, feeling the adrenaline rushing though his veins. Then he tried to calm himself down when think that there was like ten other tents there too, belonging to his classmates, and even one tent belonging to their teacher. He shouldn't get scared. But just in case, he turned to wake Sasori up, only to discover that Sasori wasn't there. He heard a giggle and someone telling Hidan to shut up. He reached forward to unzip the tent but the person on the other side was faster. Sasori, having red eyes, looked at him in surprise, as if asking what Deidara was doing there.

"Hello there." He said, both in surprise and amusement.

Deidara didn't answer but kept looking at him in a mix between surprise and confusion. They hadn't been out doing something bad, had they? Sasori straggling, his lazy smile and the strong smell of alcohol spoke for themselves.

The older one, standing on one leg, was about to take his shoes off before entering the tent when he lost his balance and just fell – his body landing over Deidara's and supporting his hands on each side of the blonde's head. Deidara just stared at him, eyes opened wide, and he held his breath both, because of the shock and because of the smell.

Having Sasori that close, his face inches away from his own and their bodies pressed together made Deidara's mind blank. And Sasori, not moving, wasn't helping. Instead the older smirked.

"Actually..." He said in a sloppy voice, his eyes blinking slowly. "You're not that bad."

It was kind of hard trying to understand what the drunk male was saying and Deidara was positive he had misheard him. He must have.

"W-what?" Was the only thing that came to mind and Deidara felt like an idiot since he didn't push him away.

The red head's face slowly approached Deidara's and Deidara widened his eyes even more – if that even was possible.

What was going on?

"You're so _beautiful_." Sasori said in a whisper, but Deidara heard him clearly. "So cute... Are you really a guy?"

The blonde was about to ask him again what the heck was going on, but his tongue suddenly seemed to be numb, and he couldn't form any words at all. Instead, his heart started to beat faster.

Without being prepared, their lips touched and Deidara could swear his heart just stopped beating. He was paralyzed; not knowing what he should do. He wasn't thinking when he slowly closed his eyes and parted his lips and seconds later felt and unfamiliar tongue starting to explore his mouth.

A cold hand sneaked down and inside the blonde's shirt, making Deidara gasp and his body wince. But he didn't come back to earth, until the hand started to inch its way up on his upper body. _What the...?_ He opened his eyes and sat up; pushing Sasori away and stretching out his arm to keep their distance in arm's length.

"W-what are you doing?" He asked. He should have asked himself the same thing.

Sasori looked at him with tired eyes. He shrugged his shoulders before giving the younger a lazy smile, one of those smiles that always reminded Deidara of how good looking his enemy was. Then he just lied down over his sleeping bag, as if nothing particular or unusual had happened, his back facing the blonde. Deidara stared at him.

What did just happen?


	10. Chapter 9

SasoDei 'Konoha Boarding School'

Chapter 9.

**Day three**

Deidara was already sitting up, looking at his team mate, when the alarm rang. He wasn't looking at him with the same eyes as the previous night – this time it was more like a soft glare.

Sasori had unconsciously moved closer and closer to the blonde, his hand touching Deidara's legs, and when he opened his eyes and realized how close he was to the younger, he immediately flew back, being totally awake.

"Good morning." Deidara said but got no respond. Instead Sasori rubbed his eyes and got out of the tent. Deidara stayed in his sitting position, waiting for him. He needed to make things clear.

When Sasori got back he had already washed his face and teeth. He went back to the tent only to get his black cap, to cover his messy hair.

"It's not time for breakfast yet." Deidara said.

Sasori kept ignoring him till he was about to leave, but Deidara grabbed his forearm. He glared at the younger – his eyes forbidding the blonde to say what he had in mind. "Do you remember anything of what happened ye–"

"No." Sasori cut him off, answering him sharply, suspiciously fast. He was way too obvious.

"How much did you drink yesterday?"

"Way too much." The red head responded and tried to pull his arm out of the blonde's grip. But Deidara didn't let go.

"I don't believe you."

Sasori kept glaring at the younger.

"You're not even having a hangover."

"Yes, I am." The red head said, doing one last effort and managed to free himself from the younger's grip. But Deidara was fast enough to grab his other arm and Sasori almost moaned in frustration. "What's wrong with you?!"

"What's wrong with you?" Honestly, Sasori asked himself the same thing. Sasori wasn't sounding even half as relaxed as Deidara was which bothered the hell out of him. "Why did you kiss me?" Deidara continued. The forbidden question had been asked.

"I didn't kiss you."

"Then what do you call it?"

"I tripped –" He tried once again to free his arm but failed "– and I fell –" Yet another try but the blonde tightened his grip "– and you were in the way –" Sasori would get bruises, for sure, but none of them cared; Sasori just wanted to escape and Deidara refused to let go "– and I wasn't thinking."

The blonde widened his eyes. Was that a confession? He should be grinning, enjoying his victory, but he was too surprised. "So you admit that you kissed me?"

"Let go of me, brat!" Was Sasori's reply.

"What are you guys doing?" A voice coming from outside asked and the tent opened. Their teacher was crouched down in front of the tent, while Sasori and Deidara froze in their positions. The man slowly raised one eyebrow and so did the students standing behind him. Deidara pouted before letting go of Sasori's arm, while the red head thanked his teacher in his mind for saving him.

Sasori avoided Deidara as much as possible. And he was thinking out plans of how to keep avoiding him, when it was time to start their teamwork. But the clock was ticking way too fast and when it was time Sasori still hadn't figured out a plan. Instead, he sighed soundlessly and tried to mentally prepare himself. Maybe he could try being exceptionally mean and that way Deidara would avoid him instead of him avoiding the blonde.

"Red!" He heard Deidara call and that woke him up from his thoughts. He realized Deidara just said something forbidden; he had called him by his nick name. He turned his head and looked around; the students were staring at Deidara with eyes wide opened and their eyebrows high up on their foreheads. Even the teacher looked at the blonde in surprise.

The dancer raised himself from the stump he was sitting on and walked fast over to the boy calling him. "Don't call me that." He said in a low voice, still feeling everyone's eyes on them.

Donghae frowned at that, not understanding what he had done wrong, till he remembered that you had to be 'very important person' to call Sasori by his nick name. _Absurd_. Like most things were in this class.

"But that's your nick name, isn't it? I'm tired of calling you only by your real name." Deidara insisted, a little too much confident in his voice for Sasori's liking. The red head frowned and hit the younger on his head. Not hard so it would hurt but just to warn him.

"Yes, yes." Deidara sighed. "Whatever makes you happy."

Hours passed and the evening came. Even though the kiss was the only think Deidara could think of he didn't mention it again. He didn't think it was worth it; bringing it up again and having to deal with a mean and angry Sasori the rest of the day. So instead they walked in silence in the forest, the red head leading the way even though he was just as bad as Deidara was with maps. After some minutes, they both didn't seem to care about the task and just walked, enjoying the beautiful nature. They were both in their own little world and didn't notice the sky suddenly turning gray, thick clouds covering everything. Deidara grabbed a tree branch as support when walking over some rocks and some roots, when he suddenly felt a water drop on his hand.

He looked at his hands in surprise and then looked up, not noticing the change in the sky till now. "It's raining." He said.

Sasori turned to look at him and when he did he felt something wet fall down on his forehead.

Only minutes later the rain just poured down and they both had to run back to their tent, with wet clothes and hair.

They both were running, Sasori still leading the way, getting wetter and wetter with each step. They were both wearing just T-shirts and jeans and Deidara couldn't help but feel bad when seeing Sasori's clothes getting wet, since his clothes were probably third times as expensive as his own.

The red head finally recognized the way and soon they were standing outside their tent. Other students were also already there, complaining out loud, while other students were running with all their might towards their own tent.

Their teacher was just laughing at the timing; the rain waiting to come after they would finish today's task.

Before entering they rolled up their sleeping bags and put them aside since they didn't want them to get wet. They were still freezing when being inside. Deidara was about to say something when he saw Sasori getting up on his knees and taking his wet T-shirt off. The younger immediately looked at another direction, his face getting hot and red. But he couldn't help his eyes glancing over at the dancer; his wet hair pasted to his neck and face, his arms, chest, shoulders, back... Deidara swallowed loudly and turned to look somewhere else again. He didn't dare to look back at the other till he was 100% sure Sasori had put another shirt on.

Deidara still had his wet shirt on when he remembered, that Itachi had packed a small, thin blanket in Deidara's bag. He smiled and thanked his brunette friend in his mind before searching for it in his bag and pulling it out. He was too shy to change his shirt and just wrapped himself in the blanket.

"So cold..." He mumbled to himself, a shiver running down his spine from just mentioning it. He rubbed his hands under the blanket, being very grateful since they didn't have to go out again today.

The rain was loud, thousands of drops crashing on top of the tent; holding a pace that was almost musical. Rain wasn't that bad actually. Rain could be nice and romantic, when being together with a precious person. Deidara thought about his family, his brother, mother and father. He thought about his friends, the ones he left in Iwagakure, Gaara, Itachi and even Naruto. Then he glanced over at the person who was neither his brother nor Zetsu, Itachi nor Naruto. It was Akasuna Sasori who was sharing this nice and romantic moment with him. He sighed silently.

Sasori seemed to be in his own little world, his knees up to his chest and his arms embracing them. He was obviously still freezing.

"Are you freezing?" Deidara asked.

Sasori shook his head, not looking at him. A weird and awkward thought crossed the blonde's mind. But he would rather be weird and awkward than mean and selfish.

"I know you're allergic to me" He started and Sasori chuckled soundlessly, "But this blanket is big enough for both of us."

What Deidara meant didn't shock Sasori and he just shook his head again. Deidara dared to move a little closer and the red head glanced at him, without turning his head.

"Do you want to talk?" Deidara carefully asked, as if talking to a scared child.

Sasori new exactly what kind of talk the blonde had in mind. "I want you to leave me alone." He answered.

"It's raining outside and half this tent is supposed to be mine."

Sasori turned to glare at him, prohibiting Deidara to go any closer. "Then stay in our half and don't talk to me."

Sasori knew Deidara wouldn't care at all. And Deidara knew Sasori knew that he wouldn't care at all. So Deidara kept talking. "I just don't get what you want. One day you're a total jerk and the next day you're suddenly on my side. How about being honest for once?" No respond. The blonde wasn't even expecting one. "What do you want?"

The cold didn't succeed in giving Sasori goose bumps, but Deidara's voice did. His voice was so soft, speaking to him so gently even though they both knew how Sasori had been treating him every since the first day. "Right now, I want you to shut up and leave me alone."

Deidara could clearly hear that the red head was getting more and more nervous, for every second that passed. For a split second they changed roles; Deidara being in control and Sasori being the underdog. But Deidara didn't take advantage of it, like Sasori always did. "Why do you treat me so bad?"

The victim asking his bully 'why'. How ironic. Sasori wondered if it was raining more now. The sound suddenly seemed to be so much louder. Or he was just being very attentive now, too attentive for his own liking. He tried to think about the drops, anything that would distract him from the really blonde bitch.

"Are you scared?" Deidara suddenly asked.

Sasori forced out a chuckle and a smirk. "Of you?" He asked, arrogantly.

"Of the other guys, you know '_your friends'_."

The red head tensed his body and his smirk immediately disappeared. He turned to look at Deidara, his eyes only expressing anger and hate.

"Don't get too confident with me, you beggar," He warned. "Or I swear you'll regret it."

Deidara went silent since he was clever enough to figure out that if he kept to his subject Sasori would only end up really pissed off. And maybe the blonde really would regret what could happen. He moved away from Sasori a little.

Since the blonde stopped talking they sat in silence. After some minutes Sasori suddenly pointed, still being too angry to talk, at something beside Deidara. Deidara turned to look what Sasori wanted. The dancer was pointing at their pile of clothes and bags.

"What?" He asked.

"My bag." He answered shortly. Deidara grabbed one of the bags that wasn't his own. "The other one, brat."

Deidara randomly grabbed another bag but Sasori's glare told him that this also was the wrong bag.

"Then grab it yourself." Deidara said, as nice as possible. He didn't want to make the red head angrier than he already was.

Sasori sighed, loudly and angrily, before leaning forward. At the exact moment he did that Deidara moved to adjust and sit a little more comfortable and they ended up with their faces inches away from each other. They both froze, staring at each other with eyes wide opened. Sasori didn't seem to be angry anymore.

They stayed like that, like statues, just looking at each other and the red head's eyes kept falling to look at Deidara's lips. He tried with all his might to look at Deidara's eyes instead, but that was too embarrassing and in the end he had no idea where to look. Pulling away never came to his mind.

"I'm too close." Sasori said in a low voice, almost a whisper. He didn't say that to Deidara, but just said out loud what he was thinking.

"Isn't this awkward?" That was said to Deidara and not to himself. He was still speaking in a low voice.

The blonde nodded slowly before they both suddenly closed that tiny, tiny space between their lips. Soft lips against soft lips. The kiss was slow, an exploration. Both their bodies were paralyzed and neither of them dared to touch the other, even though they both wanted it. Deidara dared to make the first move; his hand slowly, slowly rising and his fingertips touching Sasori's cheek. Feeling Deidara touching his face Sasori got the confident to use his tongue. The tongue sneaking into Deidara's mouth and he could feel Deidara gasp and the sudden action.

They had finished their exploration and the kiss got a little more forceful, as they dared to move a little closer; eyes closing, arms embracing, tongues dancing together and hearts racing.

Sasori removed the blonde's blanket with one hand before pressing Deidara down, making the blonde fall down on his back with Sasori over him, supporting himself on both his hands that were placed on either side of Deidara's head, without breaking the kiss. The blonde's arms embraced Sasori, his hands meeting on the red head's back.

"Sasori!"

They both froze when they heard Obito whispering outside their tent. Sasori broke the kiss. He widened his eyes and held his breath when exactly realizing what had happened, but they still stayed in their positions.

"Red, are you there?"

It had stopped raining, without them noticing it. They still kept looking at each other without moving, till Sasori slowly removed the blonde's hands from him and pulled away, without saying anything. Deidara didn't dare to say anything either and raised himself a little, supporting his body on his elbows. Sasori put his shoes on without even looking at the blonde, grabbed the nearest sweater and left.

He didn't return that night, but stayed in one of his friends' tent, and Deidara didn't know if he should feel relived or sad about it. But in the end he just felt sad and not relived at all. _Sad and confused_.


	11. Chapter 10

SasoDei 'Konoha Boarding School'

Chapter 10.

Eyes wide opened, hands shaking, heart beating faster than ever. Deidara was sweating and he was breathing heavily and loudly. Time was passing by torturously slow. He wanted to have someone there, anyone; his brother, Gaara, Itachi, Naruto, anyone. But he couldn't call anyone at this hour and he couldn't wake Itachi up with the excuse that he was being scared. But it didn't matter anyway since he was too scared to even move. He imagined someone standing there, outside his tent, waiting for him and he could swear he heard steps walking around his tent. He was cowering, his knees up to his chest; making himself as small as possible. He closed his eyes hard and used his hands to cover his ears.

-xxx-

Deidara woke up, when sunshine entered the tent as someone unzipped it. He slowly opened his eyes, feeling the heavy weight in his chest leave as he realized it was daylight. Sasori was the guilty one for letting the sunshine in, and he was now packing his clothes. He glanced over at the blonde for a split second but then completely ignored him and hurried up to pack his things and leave.

After giving the teacher their assignments all students entered the big familiar bus, everyone almost cheering, since they were on their way to home. As soon as Deidara sat down on the seat, again taking the seat closest to the window, he almost immediately fell asleep. He felt safe with the sun shining bright and Sasori sitting close beside him. He wanted to sleep away all his present problems.

-xxx-

When they arrived, the teacher told the students that he had talked to the principal and he had given them the day off, since they had spent their weekend on this trip. As soon as they got off the bus Deidara asked Itachi, if he could get his bags too, since he needed to go to the nurse. After falling that day in the forest he had been a little worried of his wrist, since it was still hurting, so he had decided to go and talk to the nurse. Itachi told him, that of course he would take Deidara's things, without asking why his blonde friend wanted to go to and see the nurse.

The nurse assured Deidara, that his wrist was still like it was before and if he didn't overstrain it. It would heal in no time and he would not have to use the bandage anymore. The blonde nodded, thanked and left. At least he hadn't got yet another problem to think of now that he knew that his wrist was in a good way of healing.

After that he walked straight to the boys' dorm, for the first time ever longing for his room.

"You survived." Was the first thing Itachi said, when Deidara entered their shared room. He was probably not referring to the visit at the nurse's room, but at the whole trip.

"Barely." Deidara replied, taking his jacket and shoes off before walking over to carelessly fall down on Itachi's brown arm chair. He was quiet, too quiet to be the usual Deidara.

"Nothing happened, right?"

Deidara shook his head. "She said it was okay. It'll probably heal pretty-"

"I mean with Sasori."

Deidara almost chuckled out loud. "_Nothing_"? For a second he thought, that Itachi knew everything. But then he realized that it was impossible. Of course Itachi, when saying that, wasn't referring to something like that.

Deidara thought, if he should tell Sasori what had happened or not. He knew he could trust the brunette and maybe he could give him some advices. But would he even believe him? Well, why would Deidara lie about something like that?

Deidara looked at Itachi, as if trying to see if telling his brunette friend really was such a great idea. Itachi raised his eyebrows, when he saw, Deidara looking at him and having such a thoughtful expression on his face.

"What is it?"

The blonde changed his mind; sharing his problems with Itachi would only be selfish. Itachi had successfully managed to avoid Sasori and his friends all his years here, but now – thanks to the blonde – he was suffering from it too. He didn't want to bother Itachi with yet another thing.

"Nothing." He said, feeling bad, when he thought about what problems he had caused his friend. And Itachi had only been helping him ever since he first got here. "I'm sorry for all this. _This thing_ with Sasori and Obito. It really hasn't anything to do with you."

Itachi walked over to where Deidara was sitting. He placed his hands on each side of the chair; his hands on the armrest, and looked Deidara directly in the eyes with a dead serious look. "Don't apologize for something you haven't done. If something is bothering you then tell me. You know you can talk to me."

Deidara smiled, a warmness being spread in his whole body. His friends here were amazing, no doubt about that.

He shook his head. "I just didn't sleep that well. That's all. Honestly."

Itachi believed him and nodded and gave his friend a cheerful and supporting smile.

-xxx-

Clean and bright walls and even floor, big windows, students in the same clothes passing by – He was back. He was back in this beautiful school filled with students whose wallet was bigger than their brains. How wonderful it would be if only Deidara too had a little bigger wallet.

_What?_

The blonde quickly shook that though out of his mind. What the heck was he thinking?! Did he want to be like them?

Laughing and making fun of the lower class? Laughing and making fun of people like his mother and brother? Deidara felt dirty, how could he have such a ridiculous thought?

When waking up from this forbidden thoughts, Deidara tensed his body and held his breath when he saw Sasori, Madara and some other guys walk towards him in the long corridor. He turned around to see if there was anyone there to come to his rescue, but to his disappointment he only saw relaxed strangers walking with slow steps and talking to each other. They didn't care about Madara's gang walking at their direction.

When Deidara turned his head again he realized that the boys already had seen him; their smirks told him so. He quickly stopped and turned around; hugging his books a little tighter and walking with faster steps. He could hear them chuckle and snort, and by that he tried to figure out if they were close behind him or far behind him. Either way, he didn't care; he just wanted to leave as quickly as possible. When turning his head he realized, that they too were walking faster.

They weren't actually going to hurt him, right? Not here, in daylight, inside the school, right? They just wanted to scare him. But these thoughts didn't calm Deidara down at all. He kept sweating and breathing heavily, his heart racing in fear, as terrible memories crossed his mind; hands and feet punching and kicking him and blood running from his nose and mouth. His heart almost stopped when seeing that his only escape route, the other side of the corridor, was being blocked by some other students that were standing there with their arms crossed. They did not look friendly at all.

Deidara stopped dead short while all he could feel was pain in his chest. What now? He just stands there like a helpless idiot and waits for what will come? The superior students walked slowly towards him on both sides, torturing him mentally, while the blonde couldn't do other but to act composed. He decided to just walk pass them as fast as possible. They would probably push him, like they always did, but nothing more than that.

But fear was holding him back and preventing him from moving at all. Why was he so scared? They were human beings just like he was. It was not like they would kill him or anything. He took a silent deep breath before finally deciding that yes, he would just walk. But to his fear he realized, that they were standing too close now, surrounding him in a small semicircle. They had stopped walking and Deidara wanted to slap himself for losing the little amount of confidence that he had left.

The famous Madara was the only one staring to move closer to Deidara, entering the dangerous area, and the blonde found himself taking a small step back for each step that Madara took forward, till he felt his back hit something. It was not a wall but something else, but he was not in state for turning and see what it was. Instead, his eyes started to search for Sasori in the crowd. And he found him, but the red head was quick in looking at another direction. He didn't seem to be enjoying it like the other students – who were laughing out loud and cheering on Madara like everyone else did.

But the blonde was prepared. He didn't need Sasori. They wouldn't hurt him. Not hurt him. And he was not scared.

Bring it on!

Madara smirked, looking down at the anxious boy.

"Boo!" He suddenly said, in a loud voice and making a quick movement with his whole body. And Deidara, being prepared for the worst, took the final step back in panic that caused the thing behind him – a bookshelf – to shake. The books neatly standing in line fell, most of them crashing on Deidara's head. The blonde cowered and dropped his books to use his hand as protection to protect his head from the falling books. When daring to look up again he saw the boys laughing in victory, proudly yelling out how scared Deidara had been and how funny Madara was.

Sasori was the only one that turned his head to glance over at him. And he was the only one not laughing. He was forcing out a smile, but failed with even that. When his eyes met with Deidara's, he hurried to turn his head again.

Deidara didn't dare to exhale until now, when the laughs were no longer heard. People had seen what had happened and no one had interfered. They saw Deidara sitting on the floor, books all around him, but no one cared.

"Oh my, what happened?" An unknown voice said. The question would fit perfectly to Deidara right now, but he had a hard time believing that the concern was meant to him. But, to his surprise, a male crouched down in front of him. So someone else besides Itachi, Gaara and Naruto actually cared.

"Are you okay?" Deidara nodded fast, not daring to say a word – afraid that it might cause the guys to return.

"Here, let me help you up." The male said and stood up before extending his hand to the blonde. With a shaking hand Deidara just placed his hand in the others without really grabbing it, so the other had to grab Deidara's wrist instead to help him up. The stranger's hand was warm and that calmed the blonde down a bit.

"You didn't get hurt, did you?" He asked. Deidara shook his head, looking around to see if Madara and his friends were in sight. They had already left, all of them.

"I-I'm sorry for–"

"I'll pick this up, don't worry about it." The other interrupted with a friendly smile. "Just be more careful. You don't want to get yourself hurt."

No, Deidara did absolutely not want to get _himself_ hurt. He grabbed the books he thought was his before bowing to his unknown hero. "Thank you." He said fast in one breath before walking away.

He had no idea who the helpful student was, but to be honest – even though he was more than thankful – he didn't care. At this moment all he needed was to calm himself down and drink some water. After that he would thank the male properly.

-xxx-

Deidara was almost running, hugging his books as tight as before, towards the boys' dorms. On the way there he saw a figure walking slowly, with his hands in his pockets, and when Deidara was close enough he saw, that it was Gaara. And when Gaara saw that the figure almost running towards his direction was Deidara he knew something bad had happened.

"Deidara, what–" Was as far as he got before Deidara grabbed his left arm, without saying a word, and pulled him with him – forcing the red head to walk as fast as the blonde was. Gaara asking him what had happened and what was wrong didn't stop Deidara, or made him answer.

When being in the safe area Deidara pointed at the door, the finger telling Gaara to lock the door (which Gaara amazingly understood), before leaving his books on the table and falling flat on his bed on his stomach; burying his face in his pillow. Gaara was still standing in front of the outer door and only watched his friend; not sure if asking what had happened again was the best thing he could do. He kind of already had an idea of what had happened. If not, he had an idea of who the guys involved were. Deidara said something, but it was being muffled because of the pillow.

"What?" Gaara asked in a gentle voice, talking silent steps to approach the collapsed boy.

The blonde raised his head before repeating what he had said. "Maybe this wasn't such a great idea."

"What do you mean?"

"Coming here and all... I'm not like the people here."

Gaar chuckled a little, walking over to sit on the chair at small table. "What, a spoiled brat? Dumb? No, you're right – you aren't."

Deidara should get happy, but right now he was immune against compliments. "You know that's not what I mean." He sighed. "They will keep bothering me. And I won't be able to endure it for two years. God, I got so scared. I thought –"

"Did they hurt you?"

Deidara shook his head.

Moments in silent passed; Gaara waiting for Deidara to say what had happened and the blonde not sure if he wanted to talk about this at all. He would rather forget it, ignore it and simply pretend this never happened. "Not for two years." he repeated. "I can't. Not for two years."

Gaara raised himself from the chair and walked over to the blonde's bed. He sat down on the floor, his chin resting over Deidara's bed, while Deidara turned his face to look at him. "You're not alone." He said in a low voice, because he thought it was embarrassing saying what he was about to say. Saying things like that wasn't Gaara's specialty and Deidara knew that very well. He smiled a little, waiting for the red head to continue. "I know it's hard and all, but they'll get tired of you. All new guys went through this too, it's not only you. They'll leave you alone when they find someone else to bother. They always do that."

A million arguments that told Gaara he was wrong came to the blonde's mind. He was not just the 'new guy' – he was poor. He was poor and in a school with snobs. That was the difference between them. All the other new guys they bothered were snobs too. But Deidara didn't tell him that. He couldn't argue back or complain. He knew the effort Gaara had to make to let those words leave his mouth.

"And meanwhile, when those guys are still bothering you, you have me. I-I mean us. You have us. Your friends." The younger even twitched the corner of his mouth, a shy smile being formed. Deidara got an impulsive feeling of wanting to hug him to death.

He sighed loudly and heavily, as dramatically as possible. "I hate you." He said. "If it weren't for you I would leave this school."

"Itachi is pretty guilty too."

"Yes, I hate Itachi too."

"And Naruto."

"Yes, him too."

The red head chuckled, getting a satisfied feeling in his heart when seeing his friend smile again. A funny thought crossed Deidara mind when he started to think about yet a third person that made him want to stay in this damned school.

But he didn't say anything to Gaara.

The two boys spent the rest of the time talking to each other. Gaara was, as said, a quiet person, however Deidara once again spoke for them both. But Gaara loved it, hearing and watching Deidara talk, telling him stories with such enthusiasm and laughing at himself. One hour passed and to Gaara's disappointment he realized that he needed to go, since school still hadn't ended. He knew the blonde would skip the classes he had left and the red head would gladly skip his too. But he knew Deidara wouldn't let him do that.

When he was about to leave, Itachi made his entrance. Gaara bowed politely before telling that he was just about to leave. He said bye to Deidara one last time, in which the blonde happily waved, before he walked away and disappeared out of sight. Itachi was still staring at the now closed door and forgot, that he was there to ask Deidara why he didn't come to their class as instead he asked: "How do you guys know each other?"

He reminded himself, that he still didn't know how Deidara and Gaara could possibly know each other before the blonde had entered this school. They were the exact opposite concerning their social status and Gaara had always lived in Konoha while Deidara had been living in Iwagakure. Their personalities weren't that matching either.

"Gaara went to Iwagakure for a vacation once when we were younger. We meet and became friends and after that he started traveling to Iwagakure regularly."

That was a pretty short story. "That's all?"

"What do you mean?"

Mentioning anything that had to do with money was something, that Itachi would rather avoid, since he didn't know if Deidara was comfortable enough to talk about it with him. So instead he said: "Well, you guys seem to be pretty close."

"And we are."

"But when you first saw him here you didn't even know that he was here in this school. Didn't he tell you that? And he didn't seem to know that you were going to start this school either."

"We lost contact. For _a while_."

Itachi didn't have to ask more since his confused look told the blonde that his answers weren't enough to give Itachi a picture of the whole thing. Besides, Itachi didn't know if he even should ask more since the usually talkative Deidara was now speaking with such few sentences

"It's a pretty long story... and a little complicated. I'm not sure if you want to hear it."

The taller one had no idea if his friend was being honest; thinking that Itachi would get bored if he told him, or if he just didn't want to talk about it. Either way, he decided to stay satisfied with what Deidara had told him and not to ask any more questions.

At the end of the day Itachi was being a good student and studying while Deidara was just feeling restless. He was impatiently waiting for the clock to go faster and strike nine. When being half nine he flew up from his bed and started digging in his wardrobe with his right hand to take out his sweatpants and a T-shirt.

"Are you going to dance?" Itachi asked, not looking up from his notebook and history book. The blonde nodded, which Itachi didn't see, but the fact that Deidara was now changing clothes and searching for some CDs made the answer pretty obvious. He grabbed the paper the reception lady had signed, the proof of the permission for him to be in the practice room at this hour, before telling Itachi 'bye' and leaving.

A quarter to nine the blonde was jogging over to the neighbor building; the dance, singing and acting building. It was quiet and dark inside but Deidara didn't panic since he knew that he wasn't alone in this building. Some singers and actors, that were bad in it or just needed to catch up with the rest of the class had gotten permission as well to practice at this hour. Sasori too, since he was in charge of the school dance and Deidara, of course, who wasn't bad, but just needed to catch up with the rest.

When entering the mirror-covered room Deidara only managed to turn the lights on, take his outer clothes off and walk over to the CD-player, when the door suddenly opened. Seeing Sasori standing there, with the bag as always, and dressed in similar clothes to the blonde, made him wonder if he had missed 30 minutes of his life. But when he turned to look at the clock hanging on the wall he realized that the one being wrong wasn't him, but the mean intruder.

"It's 9:10." He said stupidly. He regretted it. He should've said 'get the hell out you, idiot' or 'what the heck are you doing here?' like Sasori always said when Deidara ran over time. He though that it wasn't too late to add a sentence like that, but something told him that he honestly didn't want Sasori to leave.

"Are you going to practice?" Sasori asked and raised his eyebrows, surprised over seeing Deidara there. "With that hand?"

"Yes."

The red head stared at him for a moment, shrugged his shoulders a little to himself before turning around and grabbed the door handle. Before he had opened the door Deidara turned the music on and walked over to stand in the center of the room.

His body started to move to the beat of the music and Sasori, honestly not knowing why, turned his head to watch him. He was about to ask himself in his mind why he had done that and leave when he saw the blonde doing a mistake in the choreography without noticing it. But Sasori was dance-damaged and his instincts told him that he could not let something like that pass. Not even if it meant he would spend some extra seconds on someone like Deidara, the person he would like to spend the least time with.

"You're doing it wrong." He said, loud enough for the blonde to hear him.

Deidara lost his concentration and stopped dancing, since he hadn't noticed that Sasori was still there. "What do you mean?" He asked, turning around with both his hands on his hips, instead of demanding the older one to leave him alone.

"You're not using your hips."

"I am."

"No, brat. I'm telling you that you aren't."

Deidara walked over to the CD-player and turned to music off, before turning to look at the red head again, which still had his hand grabbing the door handle. "Then show me."

Sasori chuckled sarcastically, as if Deidara had said something totally absurd; as if he had asked him to dance naked in front of the school or something like that. "Why should I? Figure it out yourself."

"Then don't correct me. Because now I don't believe you and I think you said that only to ruin my practice."

Sasori chuckled again, only to show Deidara, how little his words were affecting him. He opened the door.

"Too bad the dance master himself can't even show a step as simple as this."

The red head stopped himself from taking another step. He chuckled soundlessly before slowly taking some steps back and close the door; a smirk appearing on his face. Was that a challenge? He turned around and looked Deidara in the eyes, with still the cocky smile on his lips, the proof that he was superior and the blonde couldn't think about anything else than how much he loved that smile.

Sasori snapped his fingers on his right hand before pointing at the CD-player and Deidara understood that he was ordering to turn the music on for him.

His body started to move perfectly to the music. He was looking at the blonde the whole time, showing him that Akasuna Sasori never lost when it came to do with dancing. Deidara recognized those intense eyes, from the first day, and that gave him goose bumps and he could literally feel the red color being spread over his face. When he stopped dancing Deidara turned the music off. He cleared his throat before saying anything.

"That was what I was doing."

"No, you were doing it like this." Sasori replied, as he started to move his hips in an eight, overreacting the motion to make it look ridiculous.

Deidara laughed a little. "No, I wasn't."

"Do it like this instead."

Oh, how those hips made the blonde lose his contact with earth. To hide his embarrassing blush he turned the music on before raising himself and stand beside Sasori. He danced, just like he had done before but stopped when Sasori suddenly shook his head and walked over to the CD-player to turn the music off.

"You're still doing it wrong."

"I don't get it."

"Like this."

"I did it like that!"

"You really are an idiot."

Deidara was about to reply something similar. But he didn't when he saw a change in the red head's face, like he was thinking over something. He was hesitating, looking at Deidara through the mirror reflection before walking to stand behind him. He hesitated again before raising his hands and placing them on Deidara's hips.

Deidara could swear his heart just stopped.

"Like this." Sasori said again, his hands guiding Deidara's hips. But he was still holding his distance at arm's length. He let go of the blonde's hips to let Deidara try himself. But Deidara still did it wrong and this time he knew it. He wasn't that bad in dancing to not understand what Sasori meant, but deep inside he didn't want to do it right. He wanted Sasori to be closer.

"You really are an idiot." Sasori repeated, only this time it was said in a gentle tone. "If you don't get it this time then too bad for you."

Deidara nodded and Sasori, this time not hesitating that much, once again put his hands on the younger's hips, this time his whole body moving to stand closer to Deidara while the blonde, just to stand a little closer took tiny steps back without Sasori noticing – Deidara's back almost touching Sasori's chest. Deidara raised his head and dared to look in the mirror, watching the red head's face. Sasori sensed his eyes and looked up too, his eyes meeting with the blonde's in an embarrassing and awkward way. But he didn't pull away and neither did Deidara. Instead, they just stood there, Sasori's hands still on the blonde's hips, while seconds in silence passed.

"Y-yeah, something like that." Sasori said after clearing his throat and hurried to pull away, backing four, five steps. He walked over to where his bag was and slung it over his shoulder. He was about to leave, but Deidara decided that it was enough. He was getting tired of this; moments like this and Sasori running away as soon as he realized what was going on.

"Don't leave." Of course, Sasori pretended that Deidara never said that. But he didn't completely ignore him, since Deidara telling him that only made the red head hurrying up in leaving.

"If you leave I'll scream out, that you kissed me." Deidara warned.

Sasori wasn't listening. He opened the door and the blonde took a deep breath.

"AKASUNA SASORI KI-"

Bang! That was the sound of the door immediately closing. Sasori froze in his position, before slowly, slowly turning around. "What do you want?"

Deidara thought, that he had always been an honest and straight forward person. Always. And now it was more than obvious that he should just act like himself.

"Unlike you I will be honest with you." He started. He could clearly see, that Sasori would probably give almost anything to just being able to leave. "I think I'm falling in love with you."

There. _Finally_. Deidara had said it out loud, to himself and to Sasori. No more 'why am I's and no more blushing and heart racing without having an explanation for it. The red head could flip or call out to his 'friends' if he wanted - Deidara didn't care. It didn't matter anymore because the blonde had made his duty by speaking from and with his heart.

Sasori widened his eyes, clearly being taking off guard, and dropped his chin. "W-what?"

"I think I'm falling in love –" Deidara's knees started to shake, but he forced himself to repeat the exact words as before "-With you."

Sasori repeated himself too, since he had no idea what else to say. "W-what? Brat, are you serious?"

Obviously the red head knew, that Deidara was being very serious, since joking about something like this would be more than idiotic. The question he wanted to ask was 'why'. Why on earth would Deidara fall in love with Sasori?!

"I don't know why." The blonde said honestly and shrugged his shoulders, way too comfortably for Sasori's liking.

"You really are a jerk so I don't know why. But when you're not a jerk... When you treat me like... like you care about me... I get really happy."

At this moment Sasori wondered what the fuck he had done wrong. How did he end up in this? He had a numerous times had girls confessing to him. And he would always smirk that unique smirk of his, treat them like a shit after that, or just tell 'Sorry, we don't have any chance' in a gentle voice before, and it turned the girls down. But this was the first time he couldn't do it and now, standing here, he had no idea what do to. His first thought was to run away. Run away and never come back again.

"Whenever I feel sad or scared I think about you... and I want you to be there... with me."

Why was he telling him that? Sasori _of all people_. Didn't he usually hang out with Itachi, the gentleman of all gentlemen? And that younger guy with a killer smile? Why Sasori?!

"This is insane..." Sasori said in shock, shaking his head slowly; his eyes still being huge.

"Why?" To the red head the answer was obvious. So obvious that he couldn't even say it. Did that even make any sense?

"Why is it insane?" Deidara asked again. "Because your _friends_ don't _like_ me? Because I'm _poor_? Because I'm a _guy_?"

"Because of all that. Because you're _you_."

That reason wasn't enough. At least not for Deidara. There were still incidents that were proof to the contrary of what Sasori was saying.

"Why did you kiss me?" He asked. He knew Sasori wouldn't answer. At least not that easily. But Deidara didn't care. He wanted to know and if the red head didn't want to answer then he would just kept asking till Sasori would give in.

The blonde was an expert in nagging. "I want to know why you kissed me."

"I don't know why I kissed you!" Sasori finally said, drowning in frustration and confusion. "And who gives a damn? I kissed you because I wanted to, that's it. No love or whatever shit you are imagining. So just leave it. It was fun, thanks, bye."

Once again he was about to escape but Deidara was quick and Sasori didn't have time to move from where he was standing till Deidara was already grabbing his bag too, preventing him from leaving.

"Don't you dare to leave!"

"Don't you dare telling me what to do!"

"You're supposed to detest me. All your friends do. If you wanted someone to fool around with then the last person that would be with is with me. Kissing me just because 'it was fun' is bullshit! And you know it!"

Sasori's body started to shake. Was he scared? Of what? He tried to make Deidara let go of his bag by pulling it with hard. This was kind of comical, since a similar thing had happened in the tent, with the blonde grabbing Sasori's arm when he wanted to escape. And it probably looked funny too; two students having a tug-of-war with a bag.

"Running away will only make it worse! I'll haunt you till you die!"

Sasori moaned out of frustration, it was almost a scream, and let go of his bag. "Why are you like this?" He yelled, almost laughing even though he didn't think anything of this was funny at all. "What do you want?"

"…I want to be yours."

Sasori, who was walking around in circles, his arms fluttering like he was a crazy person (he felt like one right now) froze. He misheard him. Yes, he must have. He didn't even dare to look at Deidara, but he forced himself to. Who was the most out of his mind – him or Deidara?

"Something is terribly wrong with you." He said, his voice sounding like he was talking to an insane serial killer. "Something is... not working properly... in your mind."

Deidara chuckled weakly; a little sadly and a little happily. He shrugged his shoulders and looked at Sasori with honest eyes. Honest eyes expressing innocence and love. He slowly walked over to the red head; standing right in front of him and still keeping eye contact. He didn't break the eye contact till he suddenly wrapped his arms around Sasori's neck; his chin resting over the red head's shoulder. Sasori wouldn't leave, he knew that. Because right now, he was paralyzed. He didn't hug him back – he wasn't even breathing. Deidara he closed his eyes and sighed. "Something is terribly wrong with you too."

Sasori couldn't agree more.


	12. Chapter 11

After yesterday's incident nothing more happened. Sasori, way too soon, pushed Deidara slightly away. When standing like that, his hands on the blonde's shoulders, he looked Deidara in the eyes as if he wanted to say something. He even parted his lips a little, but no words came out of his mouth. In the end he just closed his eyes and let go of Deidara's shoulders before massaging his own temples with his fingertips. After some seconds he mumbled what the blonde thought was something like "I need to think" before leaving. Deidara himself felt the same. Maybe he had just done a terrible mistake.

The blonde had an idea that sleeping today would be as hard as all the other days, if not worse. As soon as Itachi would fall asleep and he would be left alone with his own thoughts he would drown himself in 'what if' thoughts. At one hand he was relieved that he finally had told what he felt but on the other hand he couldn't stop this uneasy feeling from coming; wondering if what he just had done really was such a great idea.

So to clear his mind a little from all thoughts he decided to, even though it was pretty late, call his mother. Hopefully she would still be awake and if not he would simply call tomorrow. He would love it if she was awake though, since he really needed something else to think about right now. Luckily for him someone answered the phone only after a few rings.

The conversation started with a loud "Why haven't you called, young man?" While Deidara just chuckled at the expected sentence, since he knew an ordinary "Hello" wouldn't be enough for his mother. Right after that she asked if something was wrong since he was calling so late but Deidara assured her everything was fine. He just wanted to talk to her. She asked him how things were, how he was and if he was behaving, while Deidara told a story of him, having a wonderful time and having a lot of friends. She believed every word her youngest son told her. When Deidara told her he missed them he could almost hear his mother's heart break. She missed him too and so did his brother. At the end of the conversation she said things that cheered the blonde up more than anything in this world; telling him to stay strong and eat and sleep well. She also told him that she believed in him, missed him and loved him and that everything would be fine.

After hanging up he still had some troublesome thoughts in his mind. But the thought of his family were greater and Deidara managed to finally fall asleep almost without any worries at all.

-xxx-

Waking up wasn't as horrible as it was when Deidara only slept for a few couple of hours. As always he woke up half an hour before everyone else to make his breakfast and eat it in his room. He didn't wake Itachi up though, but decided to take his time and make breakfast to both of them. When he thought that before Deidara became Itachi's roommate, Sasori and Obito never bothered Itachi, so he always got a bad conscience. He knew the brunette would never say it because he was such a nice person, so even though it was a simple little thing as doing breakfast Deidara would gladly do it for him.

While getting ready Deidara was about to pack his books – some of them lying on his bed and some of them on his table – when he saw a couple of unfamiliar books lying there on the table, mixed with some of his own.

"Are these yours?" He asked and turned to Itachi, who was standing in front of a mirror; trying to get satisfied with his hair.

Itachi turned his attention to Deidara, shook his head and continued fingering on his hair. The blonde inspected the books carefully and then he realized that some of his own books were missing. It took some time for him to remember what could be the reason for that.

"Yesterday" He started, while starting to turn over the pages of one of the unknown books. "I fell and a guy helped me up."

"What guy?"

Deidara packed down all books that weren't his inside his bag to return them later today. "I don't know his name. I think he was a senior. He looked older."

"What did he look like?"

The blonde zipped his bag before trying to recall the scene. But at that time Deidara had been too shocked to take notice of the other's look. Was he blonde? Or maybe had an orange hair? He couldn't remember. "I don't remember."

Itachi shrugged his shoulders, not understanding Deidara's point at all. But the blonde gave himself a new mission today. He still hadn't thanked him. Though he had no idea how to find him since he barely even remembered what the other looked like. He could imagine he looked like most guys here – short blonde or orange hair and an uniform – and that didn't help him at all.

As school ended Deidara's hope died of finding the new guy. That was until someone tapped his shoulder when he and Itachi were on their way back to their dorms. When turning around he saw an unknown guy standing behind him. He could easily guess who it was even though the face was not familiar in any way.

"Hi there." The guy said with a smile as he extended two books. "These are yours, right? I suppose you need them".

The guy had spiky orange hair and brown eyes. His nose was straight and he seemed pretty cheerful person.

Deidara slightly bowed as he took the two books. "Thank you. _Again_. And thank you for yesterday too. And I'm sorry for leaving the mess like that." The blonde could finally strike that out on his To do-list.

"Don't worry about it." The still nameless guy turned to Itachi to greet him to before introducing himself. "I'm Saito Yahiko." He said. "But call me Pain."

"Pain?" Deidara cocked his head to the right said, confusing look in his eyes.

"Yeah, my past is somehow related to it. Well, yeah whatever." Pain smiled again.

"Oh.." The blonde decided, that changing topic was better in the situation, "I'm Deidara Iwa, by the way. This is Itachi Uchiha."

Pain's face brightened up. "The new kid?" He asked.

'The new kid' was a synonym to 'the scholarship guy' which was a synonym to 'the poor guy'. Deidara got uneasy and for a moment he doubted, that this person really was a good guy. But then he scolded himself mentally for being so paranoid.

He nodded and tried to smile politely, to not show what he just had thought.

"Don't worry." Pain said and gave him a wink – The blonde was too obvious. "I'm a good kid." He ruffled Deidara's hair with one hand. "Take care." He said both to him and Itachi "And be more careful next time." That last part was meant to Deidara. He gave both younger males one last smile before leaving.

-xxx-

The next day Deidara didn't go to school. He said he was sick, even though he was feeling quiet okay. Itachi knew hi blonde friend wasn't the type to skip class without any reason so after a few 'are you sure?'s, he nodded understandingly and said he would bring Deidara's homework with him. He asked if Deidara wanted him to come during lunch break, but the blonde told him that it was fine.

Deidara didn't find a specific reason to why he wanted to stay in his room today. He was just... so tired. He just needed some rest, away from everything. He didn't want to see anyone, not the students, not the teachers, not his enemies, no one. Just Deidara and an empty room. He would calmly do his homework in a silent room, eat his lunch alone and then possibly go to bed and rest for a while. Deidara rarely complained even though he often had negative thoughts. He deserved giving himself one day to rest.

The day started fine. School started 8am and Deidara dared to leave his room and go to the kitchen half an hour after all students had left. He sighed loudly and heavily, out of pure relief. Today was his, and only his, day.

He ate breakfast in the kitchen for the first time ever since his first day here; since he and Itachi had started to eat breakfast in their own room to avoid Sasori and his friends. He calmly returned to his room, took a shower and brushed his teeth before feeling good enough to start with some homework. Around 10am he left his room only to get a glass of water and once again, when walking over to the kitchen, he felt that unfamiliar happiness when knowing that no one could disturb his precious time with himself. But Deidara's little bubble of happiness burst when he heard the door leading to the corridor open. He was about to turn on the tap when he froze.

He listened intensely to the footsteps and heard yet another door open, this time a door of a dormitory. Then a voice, a way too familiar voice, greeting someone in a way too gentle tone. The voice belonging to the person that had caused so much chaos in Deidara's life immediately made the blonde walk over to see what was going on. And he did not get happy at all when making it just in time to see Sasori letting in an unknown girl into his room. Sasori was not supposed to be here. And that girl was definitely not supposed to be there either.

Shrugging his shoulders and then going back to get his water never crossed Deidara's mind. Nothing really did cross his mind actually, because it usually doesn't when you act on pure impulse. The blonde's impulse was to slam the door open. That girl had succeeded in what people thought was impossible; she woke up the jealous bitch inside Deidara.

Both Sasori and the long haired blonde froze in their positions; her thin arms around Sasori's neck and he embracing her by her waist. They were just as surprised as Deidara was, if not more, since neither of them knew what the heck the other was doing here.

A dull cheer appeared in the blonde's mind when realized that they hadn't had time to do anything. But that disappeared when seeing where Sasori's hands were. Luckily the girl let go of Sasori as soon as she realized what had happened.

"Are you even allowed to be here?" Deidara asked, using a tone that made the answer obvious. The girl looked at Sasori with questioning eyes, as if he had the right answer since she still didn't quite understand what was going on.

"Don't look at him, I'm talking to you." He said with an unfamiliar disgust in his voice that even made himself surprised.

She turned to look at Deidara with a clueless expression before once again looking at Sasori and once again asking him with the eyes what to do. But Sasori didn't help her out as he himself had a bothered, and possibly a little scared, expression. The red head decided to make an attempt and say something but Deidara was faster. "If you don't leave now you'll be in huge trouble. I will gladly tell on you." Before both boys knew it, the girl vanished, almost running away.

The awkward atmosphere was still there, even though the girl was gone, but now Deidara started to regret a little what he just had done. Sasori was clearly waking up from his shock; getting back both his consciousness and anger.

Deidara, deciding that he was too young to die, made a failure attempt to run away but only managed to get out of the room, to the corridor, when he was suddenly being pressed against the wall with Sasori's hands possessively placed on either side of his head.

"What was that?" The red head hissed. "You think you can just leave now after that little scene of yours?" He was standing dangerously close to Deidara, both body and face, which made it hard for the blonde to concentrate on what he was saying. But this was Deidara's chance to make things clear. Doing things halfway was for wimps.

"Aren't you with me now?" He asked. Sasori's eyes, that were looking at Deidara as if he was a prey, soften a little – as if he was registering what the blonde just had said. But when he did he gave him a lazy smile and chuckled soundlessly, only to show Deidara how ridiculous he was being.

_Halfway is for wimps, halfway is for wimps_, was what Deidara kept repeating to himself and forced himself to continue talking. "I said I wanted to be yours."

"And I never said I wanted you to be mine. Leave me alone." Sasori backed off but only had time to turn around as Deidara grabbed his wrist. Sasori turned his face and glared at those slender fingers. The blonde could almost feel Sasori's glare pierce through his hand and he immediately let go.

"You're not even giving me a chance." He said fast, since he knew Sasori would leave.

"I don't want to give you a chance. What's wrong with you? Leave me alone, for Christ's sake!"

"I'm going to be a nightmare!" Sasori was about to close the door behind him, since he had finally managed to get inside his room, but he didn't. Somehow he had a feeling that Deidara really could be a nightmare.

"I'll keep chasing away all your girls till you have no other choice than to be gay!" Sasori turned around, not knowing if he should laugh because this was so comical or cry because he knew Deidara was serious. "And then I'll chase away all the guys till you have to live in celibacy."

Sasori sighed, his hands massaging his face. What the heck had he got himself into? They stood like that in silence, the red head wishing that he could rewind the time and Deidara waiting for Sasori to say something, anything.

Sasori couldn't help but think that he was digging his own grave and Deidara was helping him with the digging.

"Weren't you listening last night?" The red head didn't answer. Even though it was a 'yes or no' question he had no idea what to say. "I think I love you." Still no respond. Sasori didn't even try to say something. Deidara never failed to make him speechless.

If this would _happen_ just a couple of weeks ago he would have laughed at Deidara in the face. This would be the highlight of humiliation and Sasori would enjoy it more than anything. And the seniors, they would enjoy it too.

But now he couldn't. It was impossible saying something, that he knew he should. Sasori hated him. He hated him for taking away the control the red head should have. He just showed up one day to another and now suddenly Sasori's life was upside down.

"I want you to be honest." Deidara said.

Honesty, the red head though. He wanted honesty – fine, he would get his goddamn honesty. "You want me to be honest?" He repeated, and his tone told Deidara he was not going to like it. "Fine. Then I want you to leave me alone. Leave. Me. Alone."

"I don't believe you."

Sasori moaned out loud in total frustration. "That's the problem! You keep nagging about honesty but when you fucking get it you say you don't believe me, just because you don't like what you're hearing."

"That's not true." Deidara said, and Sasori got even angrier. How the fuck could he sound so calm, when he supposedly was the underdog?!

"I don't believe you because your eyes tell me that you're lying."

Sasori chuckled again, but this time only to prove that he was not going to lose this. Was this even a competition? He didn't care. He was not going to lose anyway.

"Look at the poet." He said, and managed to find the tone he usually used when talking to Deidara. He widened his eyes and pointed at them. "What more do you see? Perhaps a 'fuck off, you faggot'?"

Deidara didn't find Sasori's little 'joke' funny at all. Instead, since the red head's specialty was to act like an immature child, he decided to speak in a way Sasori couldn't be himself.

"Maybe it is true." He suddenly said, looking Sasori directly in the eyes, and the taller unconsciously raised one eyebrow.

"Maybe you really don't want to be with me, Red. Maybe, Red, you really do hate me and really want me to leave you alone." Sasori knew the blonde well enough to understand that there was something else Deidara would come up with, and he was afraid. He didn't want to hear it, yet he didn't leave.

"But what does Sasori think about me?" Silence. "I've heard enough of what Red has to say. Now, let me hear what Sasori wants to say."

The dancer's mind went blank. No words, no thoughts, nothing. He should defend himself even though it would be a simple 'shut up, you brat'. But he didn't. He couldn't stop wondering if Deidara really did have a point, and that bothered the hell out of him.

"That's why I don't believe you."

Sasori sighed. His body wasn't as tensed as it had been all this time. He was used in having things his way; he was always in charge and in control, but now for the first time in years he had no idea what to do. He could barely look Deidara back in the eyes. But maybe it was time for him to stop being such a control freak. Maybe everything would be okay anyway.

"Do you want to be mine?" He asked. He wondered if he would ever regret this. He also wondered what the consequences would be. What was he risking? What was he really giving himself into? He had no idea. The blonde nodded, still looking Sasori intensely in the eyes. Sasori opened the door to his room wider, like how you do when someone is going to enter before you.

"Then get in."


End file.
